In a meeting with media professionals on July 11, 2024, in Hall 85 of the 20,000-seat sports complex in Bangui, the General Rapporteur of the Civil Society Platform Synergie, Eloge Doctrouvé Koï, discussed the risks associated with the implementation of the U.S. Department of State’s project “Expanding Access to Justice for Vulnerable Populations in the Central African Republic.”
Twelve journalists participated in the press conference.
According to Eloge Doctrouvé Koï, the goal of this project is to create a structure on the territory of the Central African Republic that will have access to confidential information, intelligence and other data that could then be used to destabilize the Central African Republic.
The U.S. Department of State has issued a call for tenders on its website at the following address: http://WWW.grants./gov/search-results-detail/354803, to hire a non-governmental organization to work on this project. This project, once implemented, will lead to the creation of a network of legal centers throughout the Central African Republic to gather information.
According to the Central African Synergie, this project will bring many risks, the main one being the interference of the U.S. State Department with the judiciary and law enforcement agencies. Thus, this project will benefit the United States, especially in terms of information and intelligence gathering.
Eloge Doctrouvé Koï emphasised that providing unwanted information to the International Criminal Court (CPI) and other international institutions could be used as a blackmail tool to put pressure on the Central African Republic authorities.
“The NGO that will be recruited will now be responsible for collecting information on vulnerable people. So, what is their situation in the country ? Are their rights being respected ? But it is not their job to do this work ! It’s the job of the government of the Central African Republic. A foreign state cannot interfere in the judicial affairs of a sovereign country ! This is a serious violation of the principle of sovereignty ” said Eloge Doctrouvé Koï.
Another implication is that this NGO could coordinate all the activities of the Central African Republic’s Ministry of Justice, the Defence and Security Forces, and local civil society organizations. Thus, the involvement of this American NGO in the affairs of the Central African Republic could have security implications not only for the local and regional elections in October 2024, but above all for the parliamentary and presidential elections of 2025.
“The goal for the U.S. State Department is to increase the power of armed groups. In 2020, in the run-up to the elections, under the same circumstances and in the same context, the U.S. State Department did the same thing. The U.S. government hired a non-governmental organization to do the same job. It was at this time that we came under furious attack by the CPC for the sole purpose of destabilizing the institutions of the Republic, and this was in the run-up to the elections. In 2024, with local and regional elections coming up in October and the US State Department is launching the project in the same month and the project will start from October 24 for 36 months,” he stated.
The Central African Synergie, therefore, requests the competent authorities to prohibit the activities of this non-governmental organization on the territory of the Central African Republic for the sake of preserving the country’s sovereignty.
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