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Africa. The Great Challenge of Agriculture.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

It is mostly farmers who guarantee the production of food, not only in African countries but throughout the world. Estimates by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) speak of 33 million small farmers who contribute 70% of the food needs of the continent. The average size of a field is only 1.3 hectares.

In Southeast Africa 65% of the population depend on agriculture for their livelihood. In West and Central African countries, the primary sector represents 30-50% of GDP and is a source of income for 70-80% of the population. A crucial sector which, however, is still bringing up the rear of public spending. During the Dakar 2 summit, last January, the heads of state and government present renewed their intention to increase public spending on agriculture to 10%. Until 2020, only 4 nations respected the commitment, already expressed in the declarations of Maputo (2003) and Malabo (2014): Lesotho, Malawi, Ethiopia, and Benin.

The variety of climates allows for diversified crops. File Swm

African agriculture is often portrayed in terms of deprivation. Not very efficient and not very inclusive, according to the United Nations. In fact, African food systems export raw materials and experience high losses during collection, storage, and transport. According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), post-harvest losses for fruit and vegetables reach 35-50% and for cereals, they vary from 15 to 25%. Low efficiency also refers to poorly mechanized and non-digitalized agronomic techniques. According to IFAD, dependence on food imports in sub-Saharan Africa amounts to 35 billion dollars (in 2017). Fertilizers and fuel also come from abroad. According to the FAO, the sector tends to exclude women and young people, forcing the former into dependence and the latter into emigration, to the city or abroad. To this must be added the poor access to land, credit, and markets.
Very few farmers have land titles. Interest rates for loans are high and very few have a bank account. The sale of products is complicated by infrastructure shortcomings: bad roads, high transport costs, corruption, and lack of electricity.

Very few farmers have land titles. File © FAO/Riccardo Gangale

Many international trade agreements also favour imported goods over locally produced ones. Monocultures destined for export, standardized production, and the green revolution: this is the footprint of agro-industry in Africa. Reservoirs of raw materials to be exported, destined for large-scale distribution are: cocoa for the Ivory Coast and Ghana; cotton in Benin; tea and coffee in Kenya; and vanilla in Madagascar.
When African agriculture is described positively, it is seen as an investment opportunity. The variety of climates allows for diversified crops; an abundance of arable land and natural resources; and a pooling of the workforce. On paper, the value projections of the agribusiness sector foresee 1 trillion dollars by 2030. In this context, the recipes of the agricultural industry for the development of the sector have not changed. They profess biodiversity but still offer monocultures. They turn to the domestic market but then the bulk is exported. They promise processing industries but invest in raw materials.

According to OECD, FAO, and the World Bank, the top ten exports include cocoa, cashews, tobacco, coffee, oranges, cotton, sesame, tea, cocoa mass, and grapes. File Swm

According to data released by OECD, FAO, and the World Bank, the top ten exports include: cocoa, cashews, tobacco, coffee, oranges, cotton, sesame, tea, cocoa mass, and grapes. Among these, the only processed product is cocoa paste, the others are raw materials destined for foreign industries. In international forums designed to attract investors, the goal is clear: to boost a sector that promises high growth margins. The tools to achieve it are: improved seeds capable of responding to climate change; mechanization; digitization (from apps to robotization, up to e-commerce); fertilizers; and other inputs to increase land productivity. The view of the supporters of peasant agriculture is different. Agricultural transformation is achieved through the diversification of production systems, the promotion of agroecology and agroforestry, water and soil management, the protection of peasant seeds, the autonomy of producers, the creation of local and regional markets, the recognition of land titles, and the strengthening of peasant organizations. (Open Photo: 123rf)

Marta Gatti

Sierra Leone. Moringa Protein and Resistant Coffee.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

There is no shortage of water, but floods are increasingly frequent. To enable families to have enough food and earn their living, a group of Salesians have promoted a project for the cultivation and transformation of moringa.

From moringa to Coffea Stenophylla, from horizontally grown tomatoes to new generation tea, in Sierra Leone, where climate change is making itself felt amid droughts and floods, the new experiments help agriculture and fight climate change. “Fortunately, we are not short of water, although it often rains too much and strange atmospheric phenomena occur, such as lightning bolts that kill people”, said Brother Riccardo Racca, a Salesian who lives in the province of Bo, in Sierra Leone. However, thanks to missionary creativity it was possible to start a small transformation project. “We import many products into Sierra Leone, from wheat to rice and tea, but we could grow them here, if only we had more extensive agriculture,” pointed out Br. Racca.

Salesian Brother Riccardo Racca.

“Ours is a country that has become sadly famous for certain phenomena: blood diamonds, child soldiers, and Ebola – said the missionary – but in reality, there is much more to us”. Including a new agriculture that allows to feed many people thanks to small projects.
One of these is related to Moringa oleifera: “It is a tropical shrub imported from India, also called a ‘miraculous plant and tree of life’; it has white flowers, can grow a lot, and become a tree. Nothing of the moringa is thrown away”, said the missionary.
It is dried as a super protein food supplement; one more opportunity in Africa to improve health conditions and limit malnutrition in the poorest communities. “At the level of cultivation, extensive cultivation is still a dream in Africa, because it is difficult to put together technology and lands suitable for mechanized cultivation.

Moringa oleifera and the Salesian tea “brand”

However, with this project, we have managed to include about thirty families and for three years we have been giving them the opportunity to work the land and be part of a community. The moringa plants grow very well in our area; the leaves are gathered and dried – explains Brother Riccardo – the powder is used for cooking, as if it were flour, and is a super protein! It can also be put in bags to make tea”. “The rains come without warning here and we don’t know how to control the phenomenon. So often the crops end badly, while the moringa is very resistant and rarely lets us down”, said the missionary.In Sierra Leone, in addition to the rains, temperatures are also increasing, so much so that even the coffee plantations cannot withstand the heat. Scientists have rediscovered a rare species of coffee, the Stenophylla, resistant to very high temperatures. It is very similar to Arabica, with a strong and full-bodied taste, but it is considerably less refined.

Family at home in the village. 123rf.com

“We tested different qualities of coffee but all the others, although more resistant, were not even remotely comparable to this one in terms of flavour”, explained Aaron Davis, head of World Coffee Research, a non-profit research institute in California. The maximum temperature that the plantations can withstand is 32 degrees Celsius, a limit beyond which even coffee dies.
Especially where drought and new pests attack the fields. Being a shade plant, its ideal habitat is the undergrowth of tropical forests; Coffea Stenophylla trees grow spontaneously on the hills of Sierra Leone.
It is a question of promoting its cultivation and increasing quantities. This plant had almost disappeared over time because it was not considered very commercial; in fact, it takes nine years to reach maturity and bear fruit, two years more than arabica and five more than the robusta coffee plant. (Open photo: 123rf.com)

Ilaria De Bonis/PM

World Youth Day. After Lisbon. The Seven Steps.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

In Lisbon, during WYD23, Pope Francis indicated seven important steps that enable the youth to continue their journey.

Step 1: Called by name

This is how the Pope began his message at the welcoming celebration: “Called because we are loved [by] Him who calls us every day to embrace and encourage; to make each of us a unique and original masterpiece, whose beauty we can barely glimpse”.

The Pope invited each of the young people to think and imagine these words “Called by Name” written within our hearts, even forming the title of our life and the meaning of who we are. In his message at the welcoming celebration, the Pope addressed the young people in this way: “My friend, if God calls you by name, it means that for him you are not a number, but a face, a heart”.

Step 2: Jesus is counting on you

The second step proposed by the Pope to grow as a youth of Christ is to know that each of us matters to Him. If we are called by name, it is because He appreciates us, loves us and counts on us. He trusts us.
He will never abandon us in a sad interior void. Speaking about the illusions of the virtual world in which people feel involved, the Pope wanted to assure us that Jesus will never deceive us or abandon us. Jesus promises and keeps his promises – he wants to give you real happiness, not virtual happiness, eternal happiness and not the momentary happiness of the virtual world. Jesus, unlike the utilitarianism of social media market research, wants us for our uniqueness, for what we are and the way we are.

Step 3: He wants us the way we are

It is very common to hear older people say that young people should be like this or like that; that young people should conform to this or that way of living in society. Well! Christ’s young people are called and loved as they are, starting from the personal situation in which they live. Pope Francis said “We are called as we are, with our problems, with the limitations we have, with our overflowing joy, with this desire to be better and to triumph. Think about it. Jesus calls us as we are, not as others want us to be.”

Step 4: Feel part of an open community

It was perhaps one of the most evocative moments of WYD23 – when Pope Francis insisted that the Church is a community open to all: “Everyone, everyone, everyone!”. “Friends, I want to be clear with you, who are allergic to falsehoods and empty words: in the Church, there is room for everyone. For everyone! In the Church, no one is too much, there is room for everyone. […] Everyone, in their own language, repeat with me: everyone, everyone, everyone.

This is the Church, mother of all.” And the Pope continues: “The Church must have open arms to all, without exceptions, without prejudices, without moralism, without distinctions of race, sex, social or moral condition… everyone is truly everyone! How? Like a mom! Why? Because a mother, regardless of the condition of her son or daughter, is always welcoming. She may or may not agree with the choices of her son or daughter, but she will never stop welcoming into her arms the one she brought into the world.”

Step 5: Don’t get tired of asking

A young person, according to the Pope, is someone who asks many questions and who must never tire of asking.
The Pope says: “And it is good to ask questions; indeed, it is often better than giving answers because those who ask remain “restless” and restlessness is the best medicine against addiction, that creeping normality that anesthetizes the soul”.

Pope Francis insists on the fact that “God loves by surprise. It is not programmed. And to allow ourselves to be surprised, it is important not to become fixed on convincing and proselytizing answers to all of life’s questions, to the doubts of faith and to the challenges that today’s society brings to us.”. This is why the Pope insists on the fact that it is important not to stop asking questions, even more than always looking for answers to give.

Step 6: Feel Jesus walking with me.

In his Way of the Cross speech, Pope Francis said that young people must feel comforted and always accompanied by Jesus Christ on their journey through the ups and downs of life. “Know that you are not alone. You know Jesus will never turn away from you but walks alongside us in our suffering, in our anxieties and in our loneliness. Young people are therefore called to realize how Jesus gives himself and does so on the cross, on the various crosses of our lives and of our world.”

The Pope said that “the Cross is the greatest meaning of the greatest love, the love with which Jesus wants to embrace our life. Yes, your life, the life of others, the life of each of us. Jesus walks for me and we must tell everyone. Jesus walks this path for me, to give his life for me. And no one can have greater love than he who gives his life for his friends, than he who gives his life for others. Do not forget this: no one has greater love than he who gives up his life.”

Step 7: Get up and don’t be afraid.

In his message for the WYD23 vigil, Pope Francis said: “Walk. If you fall, get up, get help to get up, don’t stay on the ground. Get up and walk towards a goal; train yourself every day of your life. Nothing in life is free, everything is paid for. Only one thing is free, the love of Jesus. Therefore, with this gift that we have, the love of Jesus, and with the desire and will to walk, let us walk in hope. Let us look at our roots, without fear, do not be afraid!”. According to the Pope, these attitudes will generate missionary joy in people. Such a joy that makes us unable to resist bringing the love of Jesus Christ to everyone.

Filipe Resende

South Africa. Catholic bishops back miners’ compensation claims for black lung disease.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

Last August, Southern African bishops filed a class-action suit against a mining company that has failed to compensate miners for black lung disease. This is one of the many cases in an industry where workers pay a huge tribute to profits.

South Africa’s mining sector contributed in 2022 US $ 25 billion and 8 percent of the national GDP. Yet, the miners whom the country owes such amount of wealth get little recognition as some large corporations fail to compensate them for occupational diseases.
On 15 August, the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), which groups of bishops from Botswana, South Africa and Eswatini, filed a class action lawsuit with South Africa’s High Court Gauteng Local Division, against a subsidiary of the Australian mining major BHP, South32 and against the South African Energy company Seriti on behalf of 17 current and former miners.

Illawarra Metallurgical Coal. South32 has three mining operations in South Africa (Photo: South32)

The workers had previously called the Catholic Church for help after contracting incurable coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, also known as black lung disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease causing breathing difficulties, airflow limitations, and constant chest pains.
In an application for certification of a class action, the Conference’s Commission for Justice and Peace accused the coal mining company South32 of failing to provide workers with adequate training, equipment and a safe working environment, as required by law. According to the application, both diseases caused by coal mine dust can be prevented. The Commission asked the court to order compensation to be paid to those workers. The plaintiffs also call for compensation for the coal miners who died from these diseases.

Cardinal Stephen Brislin, Archbishop of Cape Town.

Cardinal Stephen Brislin, the archbishop of Cape Town, justified in a statement the bishops’ initiative because some of the plaintiffs are retired workers who do not receive any more legal assistance from the trade unions of which they were members when they were still working in the mines. The bishops’ initiative is inspired by the Catholic social teachings included in Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical on capital and labor, “Rerum Novarum”. The claim that “the Church has been close to the suffering of unskilled and vulnerable workers in the context of unbridled industrialization and its support for the coal mine workers is a concrete manifestation of its defense of the dignity of work which is a function of God’s creation”, say the bishops.South32 which is a multibillion-dollar metal mining company based in Perth (Australia), operated South Africa Energy Coal from 2015 to 2021 and has still three operations in Southern Africa (South Africa Manganese and Hillside Aluminium in South Africa and Mozal Aluminium in Mozambique). One of its spokespeople answered to press queries after the SACBC filed its suit, that the company was “unable to comment further at this point in time.”
South32 which has three mining operations in South Africa and employs 9,100 people worldwide, has already run into other disputes this year. In July 2023, it was ordered to pay $2.9m in compensation after an investigation found that one of its coal mines in New South Wales (Australia) had been draining local drinking water to its facility over the last five years. The mine’s operator Illawarra Coal Holdings, a subsidiary of South32, admitted that it never had the permit to use any surface water supply for its mining activities.
In addition, at the end of August, the Australian Collieries’ Staff and Officials Association (CSOA) said that workers at South32’s Appin mine had failed to reach an agreement with the company over an industrial dispute over “having a reasonable work/life balance”.

Hillside Aluminium. South32 employs 9,100 people worldwide. (South32)

Yet, South32 is far from being the only company accused by its own workers of violating their basic rights. In March, the Director of the Commission for Justice and Peace of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), Dominican Father Stan Muyebe, urged two gold mining companies, DRDGOLD and East Rand Properties Mines (ERPM) to “settle their historic debts to mine workers made sick in their mines as a result of working in unsafe conditions”.
According to Father Muyebe, while 19 companies accepted to settle damages and compensate miners after a class action suit was approved by the High Court in 2019, DRDGOLD and ERPM have appealed the ruling and do not seem to have the intention to pay such compensations for miners who suffer from silicosis and tuberculosis caused by exposure to high levels of silica dust while working in the gold mines or for the families of those who died.
The issue is an important one. In 2022, more than 475,000 workers were employed in South Africa’s mining industry, facing many health challenges. Professor Jill Murray of La Trobe University School of Law in Melbourne and specialist in international labour relations reported that South African miners were facing an epidemic of occupational lung diseases such as silicosis and tuberculosis and that initiatives to influence policy and thus reduce dust levels and diseases had been largely unsuccessful. Obviously, the cases raised by the Commission for Justice and Peace Commission show that the issue remains unsolved.

South African miners. 123rf.com

Another study published by the executive director of the National Institute for Occupational Health in Johannesburg, Barry Kitansamy and other researchers in 2018, revealed that between 2012 and 2017, 111,000 miners received compensations, half of them for permanent lung impairment and 52,000 for tuberculosis. Yet, accordingly, an almost equivalent number of claims (107,000) were unpaid.
Dr Gill Nelson, an epidemiologist from the Faculty of Health Sciences at Witwatersrand University also found out that between 1975 and 2007, the percentage of white miners with silicosis increased from 18% to 22% in gold mines while the proportion of black miners affected with the same disease soared from 3% to 32% in the same environment. The study concluded to the failure of the goldmines to control dust and prevent occupational respiratory diseases in the workplace. Besides, Dr Nelson identified high risks of asbestos-related diseases in diamond and platinum mines. (Photo:123rf.com)

François Misser

Captagon. The New Drug of those Fighting in Syria.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

It has spread to the entire Persian Gulf, representing, to date, a new threat also for Europe.

Captagon is the name given to phenethylline, a synthetic stimulant, a narcotic that causes disinhibiting effects and gives a sense of invincibility, considerably altering the perception of what one is doing, facilitating acts of extreme violence, as well as improving physical resistance.The rapid spread of Captagon is due to the fact that the synthesis of phenethylline requires cheap and legal raw materials, and no sophisticated equipment, thus allowing its production in clandestine laboratories and its abuse in the Middle East and North Africa. In reality, the counterfeit versions, marked with the Captagon logo, available throughout the Arabian Peninsula, do not contain phenethylline due to low supplies. However, these pills contain other amphetamines and derivatives capable of inducing similar effects. In addition to being the drug most used among the wealthy young populations of the Arabian Peninsula states, it is now recognized as the drug of fighters, as it is consumed among militants and jihadists due to its effects.

127 bags of Captagon seized in Syria. File: US/Christopher Brown

Captagon is in fact used by the soldiers of the Islamic State for its fear-inhibiting effects; the drug makes them euphoric and full of adrenalin, thus allowing them to fight for a long period of time. Furthermore, it raises the pain tolerance threshold and reduces the level of tiredness, allowing terrorists to function even with little sleep, without feeling tired and without a significant decrease in attention or strength.
To date, Syria has been found to be the main producer, consumer and exporter of Captagon, thanks to its strategic position at the crossroads of the Middle East, which allows its distribution to neighboring countries and renders smuggling easier. The pills retail for between $5 and $20 and are one of the most widely used substances in the region. This represents a substantial source of income for Syria. Data show that, in 2021 alone, the Syrian regime earned $5.7 billion from the Captagon trade. Faced with the paralyzed economy due to the civil war that began in 2011, the regime of Bashar al-Assad, to address the crisis and with the support of Iran, supported cooperation between Iranian militia groups, their allies such as the Lebanese Hezbollah, and some Syrian army leaders to sell various types of drugs outside Syria.

Syria has been found to be the main producer, consumer and exporter of Captagon, ©hanohiki/123RF.COM

Over the past three years, the boom in Captagon production has attracted the attention of various manufacturers and smugglers, who generally send shipments from the northern port of Latakia which has been under the control of the Assad family since the 1980s, using the commercial sea routes, and overland through Jordan, to reach consumption centers in the Persian Gulf.
In fact, in addition to Syria, the drug is also widespread in Saudi Arabia (which appears to be the main destination of this market), the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Lebanon, and Iraq.
Among the destinations of the Captagon, not even Europe seems unlikely. The national law enforcement agencies of various European countries, including Italy and Germany, have often confiscated large quantities of containers containing Captagon pills. In reality, the drug is not yet widespread in the West, but its diversion through Europe is part of the plan outlined by smugglers to deceive customs officials in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. In fact, once in Europe, the containers are repacked and sent back south to the Gulf.

A portion of the 86 million Captagon pills police in Dubai say was seized. File: Police Dubai

On April 24, the Council of the European Union outlined a list of 25 people and 8 entities responsible for the production and trafficking of drugs, in particular Captagon. Various members of the Assad family have been identified, accused of promoting instability and corruption in the country thanks also to drug trafficking, leaders and members of regime-affiliated militias, as well as people associated with the Syrian army and Syrian military intelligence.
Meanwhile, the EU remains committed to finding a lasting and credible political solution to the conflict in Syria on the basis of UN Security Council Resolution 2254 and the 2014 Geneva Communiqué.
However, faced with this new scenario, it is important that a plan to restore the country includes projects and tools aimed at dismantling this deep-rooted dynamic which currently supports the regime’s economy, worsening an already highly unstable political and social situation. (File: 123rf)

Erika Russo/CgP

Ethiopia. A country is falling apart.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

Less than one year after the war in Tigray, Ethiopia has been hit by another conflict in the Amhara region. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has seemingly embarked on a military strategy. Many intellectuals warn that this could lead the country to fall apart.

Less than one year after the end of the war in Tigray, Ethiopia is plunging again into violence. Since last April, unrest has escalated in the Amhara region, which is the second most populated of the country, home to more than 30 million people, after the federal government announced plans to dismantle the regional Amhara Special Forces (ASF) and integrate its members into the Ethiopian National Defence Forces (ENDF). The government’s aim is to rebuild the unity of the Ethiopian nation which is threatened by the coexistence of regional armies which group dozens of thousands of soldiers.
But while some ASF soldiers joined the federal army and the police, many others deserted and joined in the mountains the “Fano” Amhara militias which had been reactivated by Abiy during the war in Tigray to fight the secessionists of the Tigray Defence Forces (TDF) and are mainly composed of young rural men.
Fano is an Amharic word which means “freedom fighter” and was used to name the resistant fighters who opposed the Italian occupiers during the Abyssinia war of 1935 and 1936.

Landscape in the highlands of Lalibela in the Amhara region of northern Ethiopia. File 123rf

Nowadays, this is a war between former allies. From late 2020 until the November 2022 peace agreement in Pretoria, signed under African Union auspices between the Addis government and the Tigray authorities which put an end to the war, the ASF and the Fano militias fought alongside the ENDF against the TDF.
Following the war in Tigray, the Fano emerged well-armed and stronger but without a centralised command. This situation prompted Prime Minister Abyi to get rid of them and of other regional forces that had been created during the Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front government (1989-2019).
The crisis reached momentum by the end of April when the federal government ordered the ENDF to take action against “extremist” elements after an unidentified armed group killed Girma Yeshitila, the head of the Amhara Prosperity Party, one of the 10 factions of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s ruling Prosperity Party.
The grievances of the Amhara are enormous: they complain that after the end of the war in Tigray, the government did not address issues related to massacres, displacements and harassment of the Amhara and Afar peoples. As a result, Amhara youth joined en masse the Fano militias units which acted as Amhara self-defence groups. They clashed about 30 times with government forces in the Amhara region before 4 August, mostly in North Wello and West Gojam.

Ethiopian Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed. (File: Office of the Prime Minister)

In early August, the Fano militias swept into towns and cities, briefly taking over some. They threatened the two largest regional towns, Bahir Dar and Gondar before being pushed back by the ENDF. They attacked police stations and garrisons, captured weapons, freed prisoners of the Bahir Dar jail and briefly took control of the airport of Lalibela, Ethiopia’s most popular tourist town. Violent demonstrations were reported. Roads were closed in Debre Markos, Dembecha, Bure, and Amanuel to obstruct ENDF movements. There were attacks on local officials while the regional police and kebele militias aligned with Fano militias. Many of these officials fled to the federal capital, Addis Ababa.
The government responded by sending in the Army, shutting down the internet across the region on the 3 August and declaring on the 4 August a six-month state of emergency, including restrictions on demonstrations and allowing arrests without a court warrant. The federal government also threatened to extend, the state of emergency to the rest of the country. It also announced by mid-August that it had detained individuals in Addis Ababa in informal detention centres, including schools, who were being denied access to court and legal counsel, according to Amnesty International.
By mid-August, human rights organisations reported that over 3,000 Addis Ababa residents, mostly ethnic Amhara were arrested since the state of emergency was declared.

On 27 April, Girma Yeshitila head of the ruling Prosperity Party, Amhara region branch, was shot dead. Yeshitila was the figure of the government’s controversial decision to abolish the regional special forces and reorganize them into the national army, federal and regular police. (File Addis Media Network)

In the Amhara region, the government-imposed night curfews in six towns, including the regional capital Bahir Dar. Public meetings were banned. The ENDF was deployed in the entire region and the government used Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones in the repression. A strike at Finote Salem, on the 14 August, killed at least 26 people during an anti-government demonstration. In a communiqué from the 18 August, Amnesty International said it had also received allegations of mass killings in Bahir Dar and Shewa Robit. On the 25 August, the head of the Amhara region Yilkal Kefele resigned. Since then, clashes between Fano militias and the ENDF continued unabated.
The main reason for the resistance of the ASF to the dismantlement of their troops despite that they were offered a choice to integrate the national army or police or to get compensation to return to civil life is that like the Fano militias, they see themselves as self-defence units. They consider that their role is to protect ethnic Amhara who have been persecuted in several parts of the country, in Tigray, in the Benshangul/Gumuz region near Sudan and around Addis Ababa, from where they have been forcefully displaced while facing harassment by Oromia’s security forces when travelling to Addis Ababa, which is an enclave in the Oromia region.
The Fano and Amhara militias complained for months that the federal government did nothing to protect Amhara settlers.

A street in Bahir Dar. the Amhara regional capital. CC BY-SA 4.0/ O.Mustafin

Amharic ethnic militias demand that ENDF troops withdraw from the Amhara region and they accuse the federal government whose leader Abyi is Oromo of being dominated by this ethnic group which is the country’s largest with over 40 million people.
The Amhara militias also demand that the Welkait, Tselemt, Humera, and Raya areas in Tigray region, with large Amhara populations, be officially incorporated into the Amhara region. They claim that when the TPLF still controlled the federal state, these areas were put without consultation under the control of Tigray. Abyi’s decision to eliminate regional special forces is also regarded in Amhara as a threat to the region’s ability to protect itself against aggressions from other regions, in particular attacks from Tigray.
The Fano militias consider that the dismantling of the ASF before the integration of the disputed areas of Tigray into the Amhara region, is premature unless the federal government provides guarantees. Another grievance was that the Amhara militias were left out of the African Union-backed peace talks that ended the war in Tigray, despite their involvement on the Addis government side.

Archbishop Abune Sawiros of South West Shoa Diocese and two other archbishops oversaw the appointment of 17 bishops for dioceses in the Oromia region, and nine bishops for other dioceses at a ceremony in Oromia, without the involvement of the ruling Holy Synod.

The political and social climate is spoiled by anti-Amhara moves in which the members of this ethnic group see the hand of the Prime Minister. The rivalry has even reached the religious sphere. At the beginning of this year, a conflict broke out inside the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church along ethnic lines and the government was accused to recognize indirectly the breakaway synod of Oromia and Nations and Nationalities formed in January. Abuna Sawiros, who headed the new synod, justified the decision was necessary to ensure that spiritual fathers familiar with the culture and language of churches in Oromia and other regions are appointed. The decision was seen as an answer to the claim by the Oromo of taking a larger role in Ethiopia’s socio-political space, which had previously been dominated by Amhara and Tigrayans, including inside the Orthodox Church. Government troops and regional Oromia Special Forces supported the rebel bishops. The police clamped down on demonstrators who were opposing the takeover of the St. Michael Church by bishops of the new synod. At least eight people were killed during these incidents in February, according to the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission. After an unprecedented episode of mutual excommunications of bishops by each group, eventually, in mid-February, both sides came to an understanding after discussions in the presence of the prime minister and traditional elders. But the wounds may take time to heal.

Lalibela Airport . CC BY-SA 4.0/ Sm105

Concerning the Amhara region conflict, the government’s approach is more military than political, which is not very surprising: Abiy Ahmed, known worldwide as the 2019 Peace Prize recipient for having ended the border dispute with Eritrea and seen as a “reformer” is also a former decorated military officer.
The government tone is bellicose. On 9 August, it claimed that the ENDF had annihilated the Fano in Bahir Dar, Gondar, Shewa Robit and Lalibela. Unconfirmed reports claim that 3,000 civilians were massacred in Bahir Dar alone and that other massacres took place in Gondar, Debre Berhan, Shewa Robit and Lalibela.
The Amhara region has been for centuries the heart of the Ethiopian state. Should it explode, Ethiopia would fall apart inevitably. (Open Photo: Flag of Ethiopia. 123rf.com)

François Misser

Music. Vietnam. Between Tradition, Pop and Rap.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

For the Vietnamese people, music has always been of great importance. A tradition with millennia of history behind it and a present perfectly integrated into international pop trends.
As a land of conquest for the great planetary pop stars – Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and the most popular Korean BTS – but also fertile ground on which many talented local artists spring up.
If the traditional genre nha nhac (music for court ceremonies dating from the nineteenth century) has been declared a World Heritage Patrimony by UNESCO, the tragic conflict of the sixties and seventies of the last century indirectly favoured an expressive cosmopolitanism, bringing many Vietnamese artists closer to the themes of Anglo-American
pacifist folk protesters.

Suboi performing in Ho Chi Minh City. CC BY-SA 3.0/ Aznboy001

With the end of the conflict, the progressive Westernization of the country then favoured the growth and diffusion of an authentically Vietnamese pop hypothesis and the rise of artists such as Mihn Tuyet and the singer-songwriter My Tam who were able to blend local stylistic elements with the modernity of internationally popular pop.
My Tam is still a very popular star today, but alongside her, there are many artists worthy of mention. Like Son Tung TP, a twenty-nine-year-old from Thai Bihn with a past as a teen idol and a style halfway between neo rhythm ‘n’ blues and dance.
There is rapper Suboi (one of the few artists who can boast some popularity abroad), a hip-hop band Da Lab, a Hanoi pop singer-songwriter Vu Cat Tuong and fellow countryman Dong Nhi who also collaborated with planetary stars the likes of will.i.am and the Black Eyed Peas; the Chillies are an indie-rock band, while artists like Soobin Hoang Son and Bich Phuong are more melodic and catchier.

Phuc Du. Photo: nguoinoitieng.tv

Fortunately, today’s Vietnam is very different from what was exported to the world by the tragic black-and-white reports of the last century and its natural landscapes, still largely untouched, are today more than ever a formidable tourist attraction. But the music of the new Vietnam also springs up on the splendid beaches of Da Nang; from here come, for example, Du Phuc and Den Vau, further significant voices of a country that seems to have left behind the tragedies of the past and that lives its present in a continuous and very rapid transformation; but which brings with it an infinite number of new challenges – social, humanitarian and cultural. (Photo: Traditional Street music in the streets of Hanoi. ©hecke/123RF.com)

Franz Coriasco

The Role of France in the Indo-Pacific.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

The French administration of Emmanuel Macron has given a strong impetus to its foreign policy in the context of the Indo-Pacific.
This is a region of the world with a long historical tradition for the geopolitical interests of the Elysée and which today has become
one of its priorities.

As explained in the 2019 document of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces, ‘France and Security in the Indo-Pacific’, France today has a population of more than 1.6 million inhabitants in its territories located in the Indo-Pacific region. This was possible since, despite the decolonization process of the second half of the last century, Paris was able to maintain some overseas territories both in the Indian Ocean, on all the islands of Mayotte and Reunion, and in the Pacific Ocean, namely the islands of Clipperton, Wallis, Futuna, the archipelago of French Polynesia, and New Caledonia. The latter, in particular, confirmed its loyalty to French sovereignty with the rejection of the referendum on its independence in the autumn of 2021.

Being territorially present in this region, Paris was able to define its own Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) off the coasts of its overseas territories both in the Indian Ocean and in the Pacific, reaching numbers exceeding 9 million square kilometres, the second largest EEZ in the world. It is useful to add that the French presence in these territories also entails a significant deployment of French soldiers, around 6,800 men and women, from the eastern African coasts, with the French military base in Djibouti, passing through the Indian Ocean and ending in the Pacific.

Emmanuel Macron president of France since 2017. CC BY-NC 2.0/ Duosdebs01

Through its status as a medium-sized European power present in the Indo-Pacific context, Paris has established relationships with various regional players over the years. Above all, as confirmed by ‘France’s Indo-Pacific Strategy of 2022’, the bilateral partnerships with India and Japan should be underlined, above all in the field of security and defence.
The partnership with Australia instead, which until 2021 could be considered of equal level, suffered a setback with the signing of the AUKUS pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the USA, which provides for the provision of nuclear-powered submarines by the US and the UK to Australia.
According to Paris, Australia broke a previous agreement with the French group Naval, which would have supplied Canberra with conventional submarines. The episode created a diplomatic crisis between Paris and Canberra, so much so that the new 2022 document specifies that Paris will cooperate with Canberra only ‘on a case-by-case basis’. In addition, France has developed partnerships with multilateral organizations such as ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) and smaller international organizations present in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Recently, Macron’s trip to China in early April, partly together with Ursula von der Leyen, and the G7 summit in Hiroshima in May were two relevant events for better understanding French wishes in the Indo-Pacific.

F 735 FS Germinal. Photo: French Navy

It is clear how Paris, adhering perfectly to a Gaullist vision that can be summarized in ‘friends, allies, but not aligned’ with the USA, wants in every way to avoid taking part in a potential zero-sum game between the United States and China. In the first place, Macron seems intent on not promoting, in misalignment with Washington, a cut in French trade with the People’s Republic of China, which has indeed been strengthened with various agreements signed during the trip to Beijing. Macron also spoke in favour of maintaining the status quo on Taiwan, expressed mainly in the One China policy. According to France, stability in the Taiwan Strait is essential to guarantee freedom of navigation and trade, but at the same time, it does not believe it is in Europe’s interest to risk being involved in a potential crisis between the United States and China over the sovereignty of the island. It is important to underline how Macron tries to Europeanize French interests as if when speaking of Europe, he really has in mind an exclusively French viewpoint. (Open Photo: French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle reaching Toulon at the end of its 4-month-long Indo-Pacific deployment. French Navy picture)

Carlo Miglior/CgP

The Role of Masato in the Peruvian Amazon.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

Masato is the typical and preferred drink of the Asheninka, the Shipios and other indigenous groups of the Peruvian Amazon. Masato is a fermented drink based on yucca, which is a big tuber also known as cassava, its ancestral name is piarentsi.

In some regions of South America Masato can be prepared with other ingredients such as corn or rice and they are not fermented. Its origins date back to the history of the ancestral peoples of the Amazon.
This drink is often associated with cultural and spiritual values among the Amazonian ethnic peoples. There are different methods to prepare this drink. According to Mirian Pérez, an Asheninka woman: “Cassava is peeled and boiled until it is soft. Once soft, you drain the water and mash it in the same pot with a wooden masher, which is made just for this purpose. The brewers, generally indigenous women, who stick to the traditional and original process, chew portions of cassava and then mix them again with the rest of the dough, in order to speed up fermentation. Finally, the jar containing the cassava is covered with banana leaves and left to ferment for three days. At this time the drink is ready, but it has still a sweet flavour given by the cassava starches. From the fourth day the drink becomes strong masato, its alcoholic content is higher, and one can really get drunk with it”.

Preparing masato. CC BY-SA 2.0/Diego Giannoni

In less traditional methods some brewers forego the chewing process altogether. Instead, they add grated raw sweet potato. This helps to increase the amount of sugars and starches in the mix or combination of products. Therefore, fermentation is possible in a faster and natural way. Bonifacio Pezo, who is one of the great leaders of the Asheninka, reveals to us a third method to help fermentation. According to him, one can speed up the fermentation process by using germinated corn: “The newly grown corn plant is ground and then mixed with the (yucca) dough. After that, it is left to ferment for two or three days uncovered. Once the dough has fermented, it is mixed with water and sieved, and finally served to drink.
According to the Asheninka, there are four types of masato made from cassava: masato mixed with sugar or honey, mixed with cane juice, mixed with sweet potato, and chewed masato. In addition, apart from the masato made from cassava, there are also other types of masato such as the pijuayo masato, and the chonta masato. The preparation of masato may vary among the several Amazonian tribes.

Masato is the first thing an Ashaninka wants after hours of walking or working.

According to oral narrations, the masato ritual was carried out at the time of the cassava harvest to give thanks to God. It is said that this drink was destined for sacred times and festive moments of the indigenous communities. Piarentsi was made for special occasions such as mijanos, birthdays or other family or community gatherings. It is considered as a sacred drink for rituals. That’s why this drink was prepared by maidens after they had reached puberty. The preparation of masato was also linked to marriage. A young man who intended to marry a girl would go into the jungle to hunt in order to show that he was ready to start a family, and in the meanwhile, the chosen girl prepared piarentsi. When the suitor arrived at the girl’s house with the mitayo (game), she offered him a bowl of piarentsi, thus starting the family agreements and the preparation for the wedding.
Nowadays, masato, among the indigenous communities of the Amazon region, is still prepared and offered on special occasions such as birthdays or mingas (community work). During the patron saint festivities or anniversaries of the community. As a typical drink, masato cannot miss at social events.
Soccer championships, the so-called penalties and chengaritos (sports where players kick penalties only), or other activities that have the purpose of raising funds either for the community or for the schools, are other occasions to prepare and offer masato.

Amazon River. 123rf.

Masato is the first thing an Ashaninka wants after hours of walking, or working, it is the first drink that an Ashaninka offers as a welcome drink to a relative, a friend, or a neighbour that has come to visit. The inhabitants of the cities of the Amazon region, instead, consider masato as just the typical drink of the indigenous people, a drink for just a good bender. That is why talking about masato is almost always a reason for jokes, mockery, and contempt towards Amazonian cultures. The people of the cities joke and emphasize the repugnance of the chewing for the preparation of this indigenous drink, without understanding that this habit is a great solution in the context of the rural world, where everything is scarce.
Masato, among the indigenous people of the Amazon region, is the integrating element that strengthens social and spiritual relations. It is the drink that better quenches thirst after a hard work or a long and tiring journey. It is the drink that accompanies community dialogue, during which the members of the indigenous communities talk about different political, social, and cultural issues. It is the drink that is offered to welcome visitors, friends, and relatives. Drinking masato together, to the indigenous people of the Amazon, also means sharing each other’s experiences, narrating ancestral stories, and making plans for the future of their family and their community while keeping alive the past and its traditions and values.

Jhonny Mancilla Pérez

Iran returns to Africa.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

Three countries visited. Cooperation contracts. The intention is to get out of a state of political and economic isolation imposed
by Western sanctions.

Last 12 and 13 July, a delegation, made up of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif and businessmen and led by the Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, visited the African continent, after an absence of almost a decade, considering the last visit by an Iranian leader date back to 2013. Raisi’s African tour was divided into three stages, which took place first in Kenya, then in Uganda, and finally in Zimbabwe.

After joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and the recent visit to Latin America, the tour of Africa appears as a further attempt undertaken by the Iranian leadership to emerge from the condition of political and economic isolation imposed by Western sanctions. The aim is to propose a multipolar alternative to the Euro-Atlantic centric order, driven by Washington, which could be realized in the Global South movement and in the BRICS countries, of which
Iran now is part.

To date, trade relations are very limited between Africa and Iran, estimated at only $1.27 billion in trade. During the visit, Foreign Minister Zarif stated that Iran’s goal is to increase the volume of trade with Africa up to 2 billion which, however, would represent less than one percent of the total African trade exchange.

The visit to Kenya concluded with the signing of a package of five memoranda, covering the sectors of information and communication technologies (ICT), fishing, livestock farming, and investment promotion. However, commercial relations between Nairobi and Tehran have been substantially underdeveloped, considering that, in 2021, trade amounted to just over 50 million dollars.

As the main economy of the East African Community (made up of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda), Nairobi would allow Iranian goods to reach the wider regional free trade area. At the same time, Tehran, in addition to committing itself to opening a car factory in the country, could also offer its expertise to Kenya in the nuclear sector, in which the country has encountered difficulties in starting its own production. Overall, Kenyan President Ruto’s decision to host Raisi has attracted particular interest due to Nairobi’s historic closeness to the United States and Europe, as demonstrated by the recent Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU.

The tour of the Iranian delegation continued in Uganda, where Raisi met President Yoweri Museveni who, after promulgating an anti-LGBT law last May, risks facing sanctions from the United States, a country with which relations have been excellent until the Biden presidency. During the visit, Raisi and Museveni decided to deepen cooperation between the two countries in some sectors, including that of oil. In fact, Tehran has offered its support in the construction of an oil refinery, with a production capacity of around 60,000 barrels per day, and a national oil pipeline, harshly criticized by Brussels due to its environmental impact.

Finally, Raisi travelled to Zimbabwe, with which Tehran boasts a historical bond that has its roots in Iranian support for Harare’s war of independence in the 1970s. In addition to attacking the West for the decision to sanction both countries, the President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, agreed with his Iranian counterpart on 12 memoranda relating to cooperation in the energy, agriculture, pharmaceutical and telecommunications sectors.

Despite the difficult economic conditions in the country (annual inflation at 175% and an expected drop in GDP of 3.5% in 2023), Zimbabwe, almost entirely dependent on hydrocarbon imports, could fill Iran’s shortages of some resources, through the supply of critical minerals, including gold, platinum, and lithium, in which Harare is rich.

In conclusion, Raisi’s visit should be interpreted as an attempt to relieve Tehran’s economic pressure and political isolation, through a renewed interest in the Global South which, in the future, could play an important role on the international scene. It can be hypothesized that not only African countries will benefit from Iranian expertise in the field of hydrocarbons and nuclear power, but also the Islamic Republic itself will be able to enjoy a climate of cooperation with these countries, allowing it to circumvent international sanctions and the isolation to which it is subjected. (Photo: 123rf.com)

Alessandro Di Martino/ Ce.S.I.

The search for a just peace in Ukraine.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

“Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth by falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages”. That’s Samuel Johnson in November 1758 writing in his The Idler essays for the London Weekly about the growing role of journalists – ‘news-writers’. You wonder what he might have made of Putin’s news media.

‘The first casualty of war is truth’, our terse twentieth century version of Johnson. The aphorism applies to the coverage of the war in Ukraine both through what is generally omitted, what is told and untold. The ethical principles underlying journalism are accuracy, impartiality, independence, accountability, humanity and truth. They are notoriously difficult to abide by – sometimes career-threatening – in the face of strong public opinion, particularly during war when a degree of self-censorship is prudent.

Take just two examples of Western reporting. The Russians claimed they were promised in the 1990s that NATO would not expand eastwards. Denials were reported uncritically. But US National Security Archives opened in December 2017 reveal Gorbachev was indeed assured in 1990-1991, not only by US Secretary of State, James Baker, but by Thatcher, Kohl, Mitterrand, Major and Bush senior that there would be no NATO expansion.

This litany of assurances – Baker’s “not one inch east” – came as quid pro quo for Gorbachev’s consenting to German unification within NATO. Promises to Russia were reneged on in response to understandable pressures from Central and Eastern European countries plus lobbying by the six major US armaments corporations led by Lockheed Martin. In 1996, Congress passed legislation enabling expansion, the NATO Enlargement Facilitation Act.

The former ambassador to the Soviet Union and doyen of foreign policy within the State Department, George Kennan wrote in the 29 June 1997 New York Times with extraordinary prescience: “Expanding NATO would be the most fateful error of American policy in the entire
post-Cold War era.

Such a decision may be expected to inflame the nationalistic, anti-Western and militaristic tendencies in Russian opinion; to have an adverse effect on the development of Russian democracy; to restore the atmosphere of the cold war to East-West relations, and to impel Russian foreign policy in directions decidedly not to our liking”. As Putin was consolidating his power between 1999-2004, ten countries, four bordering Russia, joined NATO.

NATO’s expansion does not justify Putin’s criminal invasions of Ukraine nor his war crimes, nor his tyrannical rule. But it does provide him with a public rationale for attacks on his southern, sovereign neighbour (his imperial fantasies seem to have taken over now). As long as acknowledging the truth of what Kennan wrote back in 1997 about NATO expansion incurs strident media accusations of supporting Russian aggression, we are not going to learn from history – though perhaps we never do.

The second example of constrained reporting has profound implications for ending the war through a peace agreement and ceasefire. Russia’s fantasy of blitzkrieg and swift overthrow of Ukraine’s pro-western government failed. In March 2022, a month after the invasion, as a result of Turkish mediation, Russia and Ukraine appeared on the verge of finding a negotiated end to the fighting. Key elements were Russia’s withdrawal to its pre-24 February positions in exchange for Ukraine’s neutrality, that is excluding any foreign bases or troops from its territory – even on joint exercises.

The US, UK and other countries were to provide joint security guarantees promising to intervene in the event of Ukraine being attacked again. Crimea would be left on the back burner with an understanding that within the next fifteen-year years, while seeking a resolution, neither party would use military means to change the territory’s current status. The disputed Donbass area would also be the subject
of separate negotiations.

According to Milan Rai writing in Peace News 2 April 2023 Ukraine abruptly withdrew from the negotiations because of the mass murder of civilians and prisoners of war by Russian troops in Bucha, a town just 25 kms west of Kyiv, and as a result of pressure from the US and UK (Boris Johnson made a special visit to Kviv on 9 April and refused to sign the proposed special guarantees). A few days later Russia pushed into the territories it had recognized as independent in eastern Ukraine.

Maybe events simply made steps to reach a just peace impossible. Maybe Putin was negotiating in good faith. The Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett who was engaged in the negotiations believed so and thought there was a 50/50 chance of success. We just don’t know.

The point is that the two parties were at the negotiating table once discussing a plan that might have worked, but talk of negotiations now gets treated as, at worst, a betrayal of Ukraine or, at best, naiveté. Yet the chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, not known for his naiveté, was talking openly of negotiations in November 2022. He compared the trench warfare in eastern Ukraine and its appalling casualties with those of the First World War and received a customary backlash for not promoting outright victory for Ukraine.

In a comparable way, Pope Francis has been widely criticised for maintaining the neutral position required for promoting dialogue, and very recently for praising the cultural wealth of ‘great Mother Russia’. Yet on 2 August 2022 the Vatican had fiercely denounced the Russian invasion: “the interventions of the Holy Father Pope Francis are clear and unequivocal in condemning it as morally unjust, unacceptable, barbaric, senseless, repugnant and sacrilegious”.

Both Pope and President Volodymyr Zelensky find themselves caught between contending expectations and demands. On the Pope’s side, taking up a clear moral, so partisan, position versus a traditional papal role as neutral peacemaker. On Zelensky’s, the burden of rising Ukrainian casualties and openness to negotiation versus retaining his international and national support by a position of nothing- but- outright- victory and maintaining his decree banning negotiation. To pursue the former, with a consistent 90% approval rating for pursuing the latter, would be political suicide.

The intensity of the ground artillery war is prodigious. Both sides are beginning to run out of ammunition. Stockpiles of 155 mm shells held in the West are very low. The UK has resorted to sending Ukraine depleted uranium tank-busting shells believed to have caused illness amongst civilians and troops in Afghanistan.

The US is supplying cluster bombs known to mutilate children and to take years of clearance post-war. The Russians are reduced to seeking ordinance and weaponry from North Korea.

On 12 September this year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov spoke of Zelensky needing to lift his decree banning talks with Russia as a first step towards negotiations, saying that, if Ukraine was unwilling, it was for the USA to make it happen.

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, a leading member of the Sant Egidio community-based in Rome, which successfully mediated the civil war in Mozambique, has just returned from Beijing. His mandate from the Pope is to “support humanitarian initiatives and the search for ways that can lead to a just peace” in Ukraine.

Are we approaching another March 2022 moment of mutually felt weakness that might make steps towards dialogue, negotiation, a ceasefire and an agreed peace possible? For the sake of the Ukrainian and Russian people dying in Putin’s war let’s hope against hope we are. (Photo: 123rf.com)

Ian Linden
Professor at St Mary’s University,
Strawberry Hill, London.

Central African Republic. The Queen of the gold mines.

Sunday, 1 October 2023 8:00

Zhao Baomei controls the country’s gold market. With her IMC, she has received numerous licenses, particularly in the areas of Yaloké, Bambari, and near the border with Cameroon. The IMC has caused serious damage to local populations and the environment.

The queen of the mines of the Central African Republic is a 54-year-old Chinese entrepreneur. Her name is Zhao Baomei and she heads Industrie Minière Centrafricaine (IMC). A little information about her.
The silent rise of Zhao Baomei in the Central African Republic is reconstructed in a detailed investigation by Africa Intelligence, published last June. The woman is part of the second ‘transhumance’ of Chinese investors who landed in the country in 2016. In power, freshly appointed as president, is Faustin-Archange Touadéra, who has opened the door to the new gold rush in Beijing, in the west and the centre of the country.

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Central African Republic President Faustin Archange Touadera and his delegation in Beijing. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi)

In Bangui, Zhao Baomei resides across from the Lycée Boganda in the fourth arrondissement. At the top of the Central African government, her most influential contact is Léopold Mboli Fatran, minister of mines from 2016 to 2021, as well as a long-time friend of President Touadéra, of whom he is still an advisor today. In his mandate as minister, Mboli Fatran would have facilitated the assignment of numerous licenses to Zhao’s IMC, particularly in the areas of Yaloké, Bambari and near the border with Cameroon. Another man with whom Zhao has formed strong ties in recent years is the former Prime Minister Simplice Mathieu Sarandji, also belonging to the circle of President Touadéra’s loyalists.
Officially IMC holds fifteen licenses for mining in the Central African Republic. To evade the restrictions imposed by local regulations, the company has created and registered ad hoc branches in the country which allow it to acquire many more mines than it should.
An indicator of this system emerged from a report a few years ago by a group of United Nations experts. In 2020, IMC declared the production of 19 kg of gold, a quantity that is too low considering that, according to UN experts, its equivalent would be extracted in a month in the
Yaloké area alone.

A group of rebels in the Central African Republic. File Swm

For logistics, IMC has strategic support in Cameroon. In Limbe, near the city of Douala, not far from the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, there is a depot from where fuel, excavating machines and other vehicles are sent to the mines in the Central African Republic.
For the protection of the mining sites, Zhao Baomei did not hesitate to come to terms with local armed groups. According to Africa Intelligence, among these, there would be 3R (Retour, réclamation et réhabilitation), a formation made up of ethnic Fulani militiamen used by IMC to keep the installations in the west of the country safe.
Over the years, agreements have also been reached with the UPC (Unité pour la paix en Centrafrique), a rebel group led by Ali Darass, accused by the Bangui government of having killed, in March this year, nine Chinese technicians who worked in the mine of Chimbolo on behalf of the Gold Coast Group. According to a 2021 UN report, Zhao Baomei’s company has entrusted the protection of the Yassine site to the UPC.
Until 2018, Zhao Baomei always moved in the shadows. Then a scandal that broke out a hundred kilometres from Yaloké, in the town of Bozoum, caused her name to circulate in the international press. Here the extraction activities in some of the mines managed by a network of companies linked to IMC (Tian Xiang, SMC Mao, Meng and Jianin) have caused a huge spill of mercury into the Ouham river, where the concentration levels of the metal have well exceeded twenty-five times the authorized threshold.

Father Aurelio Gazzara has denounced the ecological disaster in the area of Bozoum caused by the mining activities.

Father Aurelio Gazzera, an Italian Carmelite missionary who has been working in Bozoum since 2003, knows this story well. “In April 2019, upon the arrival of the Chinese companies, I immediately documented with photos and videos the mining activities that were carried out in Bozoum, also sharing the materials collected with international media such as France 24, says the missionary”.
And he continues: “Faced with the ecological disaster that was taking place in the area, I returned to the site a second time and at that moment I was arrested, even if only for about ten minutes”.
But his story came to the attention of national politics in Bangui. Many government officials lashed out against Father Gazzera, demonstrating quite clearly that they are colluding with Zhao Baomei’s affairs. But other parliamentarians, who knew the missionary and his activities in Bozoum well, are asking for light to be shed on the matter.
“A parliamentary investigation has been launched, something as rare as it is serious in the Central African Republic – continues Gazzera – and it emerged that the licenses given to IMC in Bozoum had been granted without any checks, bypassing parliament which, instead, should have approved them. The ecological damage caused by the mercury spills from the mines has also been confirmed”.
In June 2020, eighteen months after the arrival of its bulldozers in Bozoum, also thanks to the complaints from Amnesty International, IMC was forced to leave the city.
To clean up her image, Zhao Baomei has promised to build two health centres and a school in some villages in the area. But to date, the only work put in place is a grandstand set up to allow local notables to watch military parades, while the signs of the havoc caused by the uncontrolled exploitation of mines remain along the Ouham river.

Rocco Bellantone

Photo Gallery – Jubilee 2025. Pilgrims of Hope

Advocacy

Baobab

Youth & Mission