[concern] four Chinese mining companies in the Central African Republic were robbed

According to the Chinese Embassy in Central Africa on December 23, an armed exchange of fire broke out in parts of Central Africa and Chinese private mining companies in Yalok é were robbed, reminding Chinese institutions and citizens in Central Africa to step up security precautions.

On December 3, 2020, the Constitutional Court of the Central African Republic ruled to disqualify former President Bozize from his candidacy for president. Bo was dissatisfied with this and drew some armed groups to confront the government. Since December 15, there has been an armed standoff between Central African armed groups and government forces in the Yalok é area. Eight cars and other property of four Chinese private mining companies were robbed during the chaos. Fortunately, there were no casualties, and Chinese citizens began to evacuate the area afterwards.

On December 16, after receiving a report from Chinese citizens, the Embassy immediately negotiated with the commander of the Central African gendarmerie and asked him to immediately carry out an investigation to protect the safety of local and evacuated Chinese citizens.

On December 17, due to growing tensions, the vast majority of the more than 250 Chinese citizens in the area were evacuated to safe areas on their own. The embassy then contacted individual Chinese citizens stranded in the area to withdraw as soon as possible, and contacted the relevant protection forces for their evacuation.

In the early morning of 18 December, there was an exchange of fire between armed groups and the Central African Defence Forces, hindering the evacuation of those stranded. The Embassy urgently approached the relevant parties, such as the Ministry of National Defense of Central Africa, the Ministry of the Interior and the United Nations Integrated Mission in Central Africa, and asked them to take immediate action to properly settle our stranded citizens, send forces to protect them, and assist them to evacuate from the area. As a result of the intervention of United Nations peacekeeping forces, the exchange of fire between the two sides gradually subsided on the same day.

Although there was still a sporadic exchange of fire between the two sides on December 19, the situation has been brought under control. At present, the stranded personnel have been safely evacuated.

Yalok é, the site of the incident, is an area with superior resource endowments, with many gold mining sites and one of the civilian mining centers, with an estimated number of more than 23000 artisanal miners. Some Chinese companies have entered mining on a small scale, inevitably creating conflicts of interest with local artisanal miners, including a Chinese company based in the village of Gaga that owns multiple mining sites in Zou é and Dambourou.