POPs IN AFRICA HAZARDOUS WASTE TRADE 1980 - 2000 ... - Arte

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
BASEL LOMÉ IV / COTONOU BAMAKO
Party Signatory
National Policy: The Central African Republic, as a party to the Lomé
Convention, totally bans waste shipments to its territory. The
Central African Republic is also a signatory to the Bamako
Convention which bans the import of hazardous waste.
Waste import schemes: Scheme: Unspecified European Hazardous Waste
Date: 1988
Type of Waste: Industrial and Pharmaceutical
Source: Europe
Exporter: Unknown
Pretext/Fate: Dumping, $500,000
Status: Unclear
52Brooke, New York Times, September 25, 1988; Reuters, August 25, 1988.
In 1988, government officials in the Central African Republic
denied allegations in the French press that in 1986 they agreed to
import 70,000 tons of hazardous wastes in exchange for USD
500,000. The wastes, which were from industrial and
pharmaceutical sources, would originate in Europe. According to
official radio broadcasts, Central African Republic President
Andre Kolingba ordered an investigation of the reported waste
trade scheme. 52
Responding to allegations that the toxic wastes had been buried
in the Bakouma region of the Central African Republic, Interior
Minister Christophe Grelombe stated on November 7, 1988, that
an ad hoc commission of inquiry had found “no evidence” to
these claims.
However, according to the French publication Le Lettre Du
Continent, the wastes, which were in barrels marked “agricultural
fertilizers,” were unloaded in 1986 at the port of Pointe Noire in
the Congo, whereupon half of the cargo was transported up river
to Mobaye and eventually to Bakouma. It is unknown where the
other half of the wastes were shipped.
Grelombe said the commission had visited areas other than
Pointe Noire where waste was said to have been buried. But the
Commission claimed to have found no evidence and concluded
that this was simply “a press campaign aimed at tarnishing the
image of the CAR and destabilizing the regime.”
According to some reports, the CAR government received 2.9
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