LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Central African Republic: French Congo
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Central African Republic (CAR) rebels with the Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR) seized two towns in the past two weeks, and headed for a third. UFDR says they suspended their offensive to give the government an opportunity to negotiate, but French promises of logistical and intelligence support to the government may ... be a factor.
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Until the late 1980s, almost all foreign investment in the Central African Republic was by the French government and private French firms. For many years, the territory had been worked by French concessionaires who obtained privileges in the area by decree. But with the decline of concessions, interest in private investment diminished. Foreign investment was further discouraged by the nationalization without compensation of private textile, oil distribution, and river transport interests in 1974.
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The Central African Republic is a former French colony of four million people sprinkled in tiny villages across a tangle of jungle about the size of Texas. Across generous swaths of fertile soil, villagers scrape together a living using techniques as old as the Bible — hoes, water cans, human muscle and bone. The labor required for mere survival is so strenuous that the most common operation performed by doctors at a rural hospital in the northwest is for hernias.
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Most of the ethnic groups inhabiting the present-day Central African Republic entered the region in the 19th century to escape Fulani armies or to avoid slave traders operating in the Congo River Basin and modern Sudan. In the 1880s the French annexed the area, and in 1894 it was organized as the territory of Ubangi-Chari. In 1910 the dependency became part of the Federation of French Equatorial Africa. Economic development was dominated by European concessionaires. This system led to abuses of the black Africans, who staged several violent protests, notably between 1928 and 1930.
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The Bangassou forest is a mosaic of dense forest and savannah in southeastern Central African Republic (CAR) on the northern edge of the Guineo-Congolian forest massif. The forest has never been commercially exploited for timber and is inhabited by 40,000 people in 220 villages with associated roads, fields, coffee and palm plantations. The Bangassou forest is not a legally gazetted protected area, but is managed as a biodiversity conservation and sustainable use area based on decentralized community management of natural resources. The “Bangassou Forest Project” until recently funded by the Global Environmental Facility/UNDP, is managed by the Ministry of Water, Forests, Hunting, Fishing, and Environment (MEFCPET), with technical assistance from the Canadian Center for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI).
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The main language is French with a dialect called Central African French. The form is very understood by the Francophone nation. English is widely spoken by those who have a university degree. There are a lot of indigenous languages .... Whilst French is the official language of Central African Republic, Sängö (also refered to as Sangro or Sangho) is the lingua france and is spoken by most of the people in Central African Republic (some 2000 have it as a mother tongue whilst 80% have it as a second language). To find out if someone speaks Sängö, simply say Balâo (which means Hello), if they respond back with Balâo mïngï then you have found yourself a sango speaker.
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