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Eye on Rwandan businesses in the Central African Republic

BANGUI (Reuters) &#8211; Deposed former Central African Republic President Francois Bozize announced on Saturday his candidacy for the December presidential vote despite being under U.N. sanctions and subject to an arrest warrant for alleged crimes against humanity.



He made the expected announcement in a speech to a large crowd of supporters at a congress of his party Kwa na Kwa (Work, Nothing But Work) in the capital Bangui.



The 73-year-old former general and army chief was overthrown in a 2013 rebellion by a coalition of mainly Muslim rebels from the north, plunging the majority Christian nation into a violent civil war and an acute and ongoing humanitarian crisis.



“The country needs a man of experience, peace and conviction,” Bozize said in the speech that criticised the tenure of current president, Faustin-Archange Touadera.



Bozize first took power after a 2003 coup and served 10 years as president, before fleeing the country in 2013. The new administration sought his arrest for alleged crimes against humanity and incitement to genocide, but has not moved to detain him since he returned from exile late last year.



It is not clear how the warrant or foreign sanctions will affect his candidacy. In January, Bozize said he would ask the United Nations to lift the sanctions imposed in 2014 over his alleged support for ‘anti-balaka’ Christian militias.



Touadera, who was elected in 2016, is expected to seek a second term in the election but has not yet confirmed he will run. The first round of the race is scheduled for December 27.



Most of the diamond-rich country remains beyond government control as rival militias continue to clash. The violence has forced more than 1.5 million people to flee their homes.

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Deposed Central African Republic leader announces presidential bid

In the wake of the global COVID-19 crisis, the <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/videos/2020/04/07/how-the-imf-is-responding-to-africa-amid-the-covid-19-crisis/">International Monetary Fund (IMF)</a> Executive Board has approved immediate debt service relief to 25 poor and vulnerable countries.



Nineteen African countries will receive immediate debt service relief, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, D.R., The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone and Togo.



The following statement provides more details:



April 13, 2020



Washington, DC – Ms. Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued the following statement:



“Today, I am pleased to say that our Executive Board approved immediate debt service relief to 25 of the IMF’s member countries under the IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) as part of the Fund’s response to help address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.



“This provides grants to our poorest and most vulnerable members to cover their IMF debt obligations for an initial phase over the next six months and will help them channel more of their scarce financial resources towards vital emergency medical and other relief efforts.



“The CCRT can currently provide about US$500 million in grant-based debt service relief, including the recent US$185 million pledge by the U.K. and US$100 million provided by Japan as immediately available resources. Others, including China and the Netherlands, are also stepping forward with important contributions. I urge other donors to help us replenish the Trust’s resources and boost further our ability to provide additional debt service relief for a full two years to our poorest member countries.”



The countries that will receive debt service relief today are: Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, D.R., The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Togo, and Yemen.



For more coverage on COVID-19 visit: <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/">https://www.cnbcafrica.com/covid-19/</a>

IMF approves immediate debt relief for 25 countries amid COVID-19 crisis

IMF approves immediate debt relief for 25 countries amid COVID-19 crisis. shutterstock_94083223

MOSCOW (Reuters) &#8211; Russia and the Central African Republic will sign an agreement on military cooperation on Tuesday, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.
Russia this year delivered light arms to the Central African Republic’s security forces and said it deployed 175 military and civilian instructors to train them.
Three Russian reporters were killed last month in the Central African Republic while investigating Russian mercenaries reportedly active in the country.
Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by John Stonestreet

What you need to know about Russia’s military agreement with Central African Republic

Central Africa’s CEMAC bloc is expected by the International Monetary Fund to have suffered a 0.6 percent economic contraction in 2017, an improvement on last year’s 1 percent but well below an earlier forecast of 0.7 percent growth.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-43288 size-full" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/imf-headquarters.jpg" alt="Low oil out impacts Angola’s economic growth" width="600" height="340" />
The oil-producing zone &#8212; comprising Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Congo Republic and Central African Republic &#8212; has been hit by a slump in crude prices since 2014 and by cutbacks in public spending.
The IMF said in a statement late on Monday that it had revised up the public debt-to-GDP ratio for the region to over 50 percent as of the end of 2016. The ratio stood at 28 percent at the end of 2014.
Several CEMAC countries receive financial assistance from the IMF, and Congo Republic is currently in negotiations for a bailout after its public or publicly guaranteed debt spiked this year to 110 percent of GDP.
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Reporting by Sofia Christensen; Editing by Aaron Ross/Jeremy Gaunt
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Central African economies contracted this year, but by less than before -IMF

<figure><img decoding="async" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/177123/width754/file-20170706-5026-qkev0u.jpg" alt="File 20170706 5026 qkev0u" /><figcaption>Tropical forests in the Congo for example have exceptionally high animal and plant species. 
Shutterstock</figcaption></figure>
Tropical Africa has two distinct features – rain forests which are dominated by trees and savannas which are dominated by grasses. Both depend on rainfall quantity and seasonality. Seasonality measures how constant the distribution of rainfall over the course of a year is – in other words how long the dry season is.
Forests located close to the Equator receive lots of rainfall constantly <a href="http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0005/000580/058054eo.pdf">over the year</a>, while savannas receive less rainfall and only during the wet season.
Forests and savannas are expected to be strongly affected in the coming decades by changing rainfall patterns, including increased dry periods and decreasing annual rainfall. These changes are already being felt. In some areas of Burkina Faso <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02560.x/abstract">desertification is increasing</a>, while <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0081">in Chad</a> rainfall is increasing. These changes are being linked to climate change <a href="https://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v3/n4/full/nclimate1716.html">across the world</a>.
Forests and savannas are expected to be affected greatly by these changes because they depend heavily on rainfall quantity and seasonality.
<h2>Forests and savannas are important ecosystems</h2>
Savannas and forests function very differently but they are important ecologically and economically. They sustain a lot of plant and wildlife. Tropical forests have exceptionally high animal and plant species. They also play a crucial role in regulating the global climate, for example by storing <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/333/6045/988">lots of carbon</a>. And people make a living off forests.
Most of sub-Saharan Africa’s agriculture takes place <a href="http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.28.1.517">in savanna areas</a> which support most of the continent’s cropland and pasture areas. Importantly, savannas such as <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/156">the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania</a> are also home to the largest animal populations on Earth.
But future changes in the climate could have an impact on these symbolic landscapes. For example, decreasing rainfall in forest areas, and increasing number of droughts, may cause <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037811270900615X">trees to die</a>. In savanna areas, more rain may increase <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0081">tree growth and cover</a>.
The way people are using the land can also have a big impact on forests and savannas. For example changing agricultural practices toward intensification and conversion of <a href="http://www.fao.org/docrep/017/i3242e/i3242e.pdf">very large areas to cropland</a> has been shown to have a major impact. Thus, conservation efforts need to start taking into account the effects of climate change as well as the potential impact of agricultural conversion to target forests and savannas that are at greatest risk.
<h2>The ecological importance of fire</h2>
The Congo Basin is Africa’s main tropical forest block covering more than <a href="http://rainforests.mongabay.com/congo/">178 million hectares</a> – a third of the size of the Amazon. Tropical forests are also present in East and West Africa but in smaller areas. Trees in these tropical forests are very sensitive to disturbances such as fires which are exacerbated by droughts. Indeed, increasing drought can enable fires to spread from savannas into the adjacent forests. This is what happened during the massive wildfire in the <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/03/massive-wildfire-rips-through-congo-rainforest-is-logging-to-blame/">Congo Basin in January 2016</a>.
<figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/177121/area14mp/file-20170706-26465-udypdd.jpg"><img decoding="async" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/files/177121/width754/file-20170706-26465-udypdd.jpg" alt="" /></a><figcaption>savannas need [disturbances like fire. 
Shutterstock</figcaption></figure>
For their part, savannas need <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7069/abs/nature04070.html">disturbances like fire</a> but repeated fires limit the number of trees, and thus the tree cover, and <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/351/6269/120">promotes biodiversity</a>.
<h2>Responding to climate change and land use</h2>
The prediction is that <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.13299/full">rainfall will increase</a> in some savanna areas of Central African Republic. This will lead to an increase in tree cover <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.13299/full">within savannas</a>. If not compensated by fire landscape opening, this tree cover increase could be an issue because it would limit the quantity of grasses accessible for livestock and wild herbivores.
The predictions for the drier regions are more variable. In some areas of the Sahelian region, like Chad, it’s predicted that rainfall will increase, similarly leading to an <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.13299/full">increase in tree cover</a>. But this is likely to have a positive effect because it will mean more productivity for grasses and trees. In other areas, like in Burkina Faso, the length of the dry season may increase which could <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02560.x/abstract">drive desertification</a>.
In the case of the Congo Basin, an increase in seasonality could lead to a decrease in <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.13299/full">tree cover</a> because it’s likely to limit tree growth and increase tree mortality.
But climate change is not the only threat that forests and savannas are facing. The way people are using these two ecosystems is also having an impact. For example, new development policies suggest that more savanna areas should be targeted <a href="https://siteresources.worldbank.org/DEC/Resources/Rising-Global-Interest-in-Farmland.pdf">for biofuel production</a>.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/78421/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.13299/full">Future simulations</a> suggest that increasing cropland and pastureland by 2070 will modify tree cover in both forests and savannas more than climate change. Environmental policies are crucial because they have the power to influence where large conversions to agriculture take place. This is particularly important for areas of low population densities and where agricultural practices are still traditional, as <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/srep41393?WT.feed_name=subjects_ecology">in the Central African Republic</a>.
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/julie-c-aleman-380148">Julie C. Aleman</a>, Postdoctoral research associate working on savanna and forest distribution, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/yale-university-1326">Yale University</a>
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="http://theconversation.com/why-the-future-of-africas-forests-and-savannas-are-under-threat-78421">original article</a>.

Africa’s forests and savannas are under threat, ignore it at your on peril

DAKAR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) &#8211; The world pays the least attention to humanitarian crises when they force Africans from their homes, dashing hopes of peace, hindering reconstruction and increasing the risk of radicalization, an aid agency said on Thursday.
Central African Republic topped the Norwegian Refugee Council&#8217;s (NRC) annual list of neglected displacement crises.
It was followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria, Yemen, the Palestinian territories, Ukraine, Myanmar and Somalia.
&#8220;The fact that most of these people do not turn up at our doorsteps gives us no right to close our eyes to their suffering, and does not remove our responsibility to assist,&#8221; the NRC&#8217;s Secretary General Jan Egeland said in a statement.
&#8220;Economic support to alleviate humanitarian crises must be given based on needs, and not &#8230; geopolitical interests.&#8221;
BLIND EYE
Limited political will to achieve peace, scant media attention and a lack of aid funding mean crises are likely to worsen and trigger even more displacement, the NRC said.
Chronic conflict involving militias in countries such as Central African Republic and Congo could drive more and more people into armed groups, said Richard Skretteberg of the NRC.
&#8220;When you combine limited state presence in much of these countries, mass displacement, and a lack of protection and aid for civilians, this creates a fertile breeding ground for radicalization,&#8221; he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
&#8220;Rebuilding and working towards peace are difficult when so many people are displaced,&#8221; the NRC senior adviser added.
One in five Central Africans &#8211; about a million people &#8211; is displaced, and at least 100,000 were newly uprooted last month in some of the worst violence between the mainly Muslim Seleka rebels and Christian militias since conflict began in 2013.
Spreading ethnic violence in Congo has forced more than 1.5 million people to flee their homes within the country this year &#8211; more than triple the number uprooted within Syria and five times the number within Iraq, according to the NRC.
The United Nations has received just a fifth of the $812.5 million sought in the humanitarian appeal for Congo this year, and 25 percent of the $400 million requested for Central African Republic, the U.N.&#8217;s Financial Tracking Service (FTS) shows.
Africa&#8217;s arid Sahel belt, which stretches from Senegal to Eritrea and lies south of the Sahara desert, topped the NRC&#8217;s index last year, followed by Yemen and Libya.
(Reporting By Kieran Guilbert, Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women&#8217;s rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience.

Crisis? What crisis? World ignores displaced Africans – aid agency

Tropical forests are essential for sustainable growth in Africa. They also have economic, environmental, and social implications that extend far beyond the continent.
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Although they cover less than 7% of the earth’s land surface, tropical forests are home to approximately 50% of all living things on earth. Yet these forests are being cleared at a rate of 18 million hectares a year.
<figure><img decoding="async" src="https://assets.weforum.org/editor/x_7FxVnqg6dDy6-Zt5ROPn75b0RpwEj3R3CCyZSmvpE.gif" alt=" " /></figure>
While the economic value of forests is difficult to quantify precisely, an estimate by The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity project, which was kick-started by the UK Government, forecast that the loss of biodiversity from deforestation would cost the global economy up to <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/5000000000000-the-cost-each-year-of-vanishing-rainforest-2096367.html">$4.5 trillion a year</a>.
One industry that could be impacted heavily is the pharmaceuticals industry. Tropical rainforests have provided key ingredients for an estimated 25% of pharmaceuticals and prescription drugs derived from rainforest plants are used to treat cancer, heart disease, bronchitis, arthritis, diabetes and other conditions. Yet only around 1% of plants have been tested for medicinal properties and deforestation means species are lost before they can even be explored.
Tropical forests also matter in the fight against climate change. As the ‘lungs of the earth’ forests breathe in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen in exchange. When a forest is cleared, the trees release this stored carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Globally, deforestation represents around 15% of greenhouse gas emissions. We cannot solve climate change without also addressing deforestation.
Deforestation also affects rainfall. At a local level, it <a href="http://phys.org/news/2011-09-deforestation-rainfall-africa.html">changes rainfall</a> and water run-off patterns making the remaining forests drier. It could also have global impacts with <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/deforestation-in-the-tropics-affects-climate-around-the-world-study-finds">scientific models</a> showing that the complete destruction of tropical forests in central Africa would reduce rainfall in southern Europe and the upper and lower US Midwest.
The impact of deforestation on ecosystems and animal habitat could also have other far-reaching impacts. For example, France’s environment Minister, Ségolène Royal, told a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/29/deforestation-might-have-started-west-africas-ebola-outbreak">conference last year</a> that researchers believe deforestation in West Africa increased the likelihood of the Ebola epidemic in 2014. The destruction of the natural habitat of fruit-eating bats, which carried the Ebola virus, likely drove them towards human settlements to find food.
Africa is home to around 18% of the world’s tropical forests. The second largest tropical forest on the planet is located in the Congo Basin in central Africa and extends for around 3 million square kilometres – which is larger than the entire land mass of Argentina.
<h3>Have you read?</h3>
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<h3 class="news-title"><a href="http://cnbc.africa/insights/energy-environment/2017/03/15/africas-poorest-people-need-access-clean-energy-can-get/">Africa’s poorest people need access to clean energy. How can we get it to them?</a></h3>
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Despite their economic, social, and environmental importance, Africa’s tropical forests are under threat. Almost 90% of West Africa’s coastal rainforest has already been destroyed and deforestation in the Congo Basin has doubled since 1990.
Logging and agriculture continue to be two of the biggest threats to Africa’s tropical forests. The unsustainable production of palm oil is one of the biggest drivers.
Palm oil is found in about half of all packaged products sold in supermarkets. It’s already a $50 billion global industry and is projected to rise to $88 billion by 2022. And Africa is expected to be the next growth spot for palm oil production.
It is significant then that seven African Governments – Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Liberia, the Republic of Congo, and Sierra Leone – have <a href="https://www.weforum.org/press/2016/01/seven-african-governments-to-protect-over-70-of-africa-s-tropical-forests-from-unsustainable-palm-oil-development">agreed to protect</a> more than 70% of Africa’s tropical forests from unsustainable palm oil production.
Equally significant is the <a href="https://www.tfa2020.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/TFA2020_Marrakesh_Declaration-Statement-of-Support_post-embargoed.pdf">support shown</a> by large consumer-facing companies like Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive and Unilever; palm oil producers including Feronia, GVL, Socfin Group, and Wilmar; and civil society organisations such as Conservation International, the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil, and the World Wide Fund for Nature, among others.
This support is crucial because governments are unlikely to be able to stop deforestation from unsustainable palm oil production on their own, as evidenced by the ongoing battle to combat illegal logging. Success will require a diverse range of stakeholders working together to deal with the intertwined issues of environmental protection, human rights (indigenous peoples who live in forested areas), agricultural production, and ensuring the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.
New technology tools will also help. For example, Global Forest Watch is using rapid advances in satellite imaging to increase transparency and improve access to forest-related data. Anyone with a computer can create custom maps, analyse forest trends, and download actionable data. In Panama, drones are being used by local communities to monitor their forests in real time all year round. Elsewhere, governments are exploring how blockchain technology could be applied to tracking land rights allocations
Together, these emerging technologies and partnership models could help save Africa’s forests.
This article was first published on Thursday 17 November 2016 at: <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/11/deforestation-africa-palm-oil">https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/11/deforestation-africa-palm-oil</a>  and is republished with WEF&#8217;s permission
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Central African Republic

Eye on Rwandan businesses in the Central African Republic

Deposed Central African Republic leader announces presidential bid

IMF approves immediate debt relief for 25 countries amid COVID-19 crisis

What you need to know about Russia’s military agreement with Central African Republic

Central African economies contracted this year, but by less than before -IMF

Africa’s forests and savannas are under threat, ignore it at your on peril

Crisis? What crisis? World ignores displaced Africans – aid agency

This is why we need to save Africa’s forests

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Central African Republic

Eye on Rwandan businesses in the Central African Republic

Deposed Central African Republic leader announces presidential bid

IMF approves immediate debt relief for 25 countries amid COVID-19 crisis

What you need to know about Russia’s military agreement with Central African Republic

Central African economies contracted this year, but by less than before -IMF

Africa’s forests and savannas are under threat, ignore it at your on peril

Crisis? What crisis? World ignores displaced Africans – aid agency

This is why we need to save Africa’s forests

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