What do you guys think of Bangui, the capital of the République

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Fun fact - this island here in the Ubangi River is owned by Gulf States development consortium. Their plan was to build an upscale hotel and a a planned community with villas and estates for the country's small wealthy class, but then a series of wars derailed their plans.

Preliminary construction has still not began as of late 2016.

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The city's tallest building is a former Sofitel that is currently an independent hotel owned by Lebanese people. Sofitel revoked its brand and marketing rights following one of the civil wars.

>>67313809
>>67313836
>>67313863
What an absolute disaster. There is no hope for a place like this.

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This is part of the "centre-ville," the centre of the city, containing some of the fanciest villas and most chic entertainment spots.

But after repeated raids and looting by militants during 2013-2014, before the French intervention, it has yet to fully recover.

>>67313809
Looks awful

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As you can see, only a handful of the city's streets are actually paved. Most are still dirt, which creates serious transportation difficulties during the rainy season.

>>67313881
Not really. Many places rose up from shitty to very shitty beginnings.

>>67313895
This isn't terrible considering the other pics posted so far

well....

at least they have DHL express for ultra fast, convenient delivery.

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>>67313836
Here is part of the original plan for the island, c. 2008. The project's name was "La Cité Lumière" (City of Light), initially described as a €1.5 project financed by Qatar and UAE investors.

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>>67313895
and here is the view from that building...

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€1.5 BILLION, I mean.

Another interesting fact - there is no road bridge across the Ubangi River between Bangui/Central African Republic and the DR Congo/Bangui's southern suburbs.

The supports for a bridge were constructed in the early 2000's but were abandoned due to an outbreak of civil war in 2003.

Now, they are too decayed and un-maintained to be used for a bridge. Any new bridge project would require new supports in a different location along the river.

Funny thing is that even though the nation already has a Lingua Franca they still stick to French instead of Sango.

It seems almost every former French colony is a massive faliure today save for a few. Why is this?

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You can see the dugout canoes that the bridge was intended to replace. The small canoes often capsize in the river and lead to drownings.

Also note that the electrical transmission line tower in the background has no wires. That's because a large hydro-electric project along the Ubangi River was also abandoned during the construction process.

>>67314046
>In the CAR, French is the language of writing and formal situations. In 2005 it was estimated that 22.5% of the population could speak French.

>Sangho has about 350,000 native speakers. It has become the lingua franca of the country. It became a national language in 1963 and an official language (alongside French) in 1991. It is estimated that 92% of the CAR's population is able to speak Sangho. The language has become the mother tongue of almost all children in Bangui.

Like look at the disparity lol

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On the upside, the gentle, wet tropical climate means that all sorts of vegetables and culinary plants are easy to grow, even with minimal effort. The country's food markets have generally continued to function even during periods of war.

>>67314072
Colonial policies set up the path of a nation in the future just like government polices and any nation really.

>>67313979
How were they going to build all that for just €1.5?

>>67314207
Indian/Paki labourers.

>Africa

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While Bangui's main hospital provides free/reduced-price medical care to the poor, its physical facilities are modest, with many patients housed in tents run by foreign volunteers.

>>67313809
>What do you guys think of Bangui.

I don't.

But I love that Antonov sitting there.

Looks like a great place to send America's black community.

>>67314013
Wouldn't look terrible if it was at least paved

>>67314072
niggers

how many wars did they have and why?
You already live in a poor as fuck country, do you really have to ruin it even further by drowning it into war?

>>67314375
Yeah it's Africa. Ooga booga you not my tribe

>>67314375
They had a cannibal emperor in the 1970's (Jean-Bedel Bokassa). His overthrow in 1979 led to a period of unrest.

General André Kolingba kept things relatively stable in the 1980's under his repressive dictatorship. But then power was handed to Ange-Félix Patassé in the 90's, and he wasn't as skilled as a politician.

There was a civil war in 1996-1997 that ended with French intervention.

Then there was a small civil war in 2001 during a coup attempt, but it failed.

But to crush the civil war, Patassé allied himself with a Congolese warlord named Jean-Pierre Bemba. This led to another civil war in 2003, in which Patassé was overthrown by François Bozizé.

But then there was a civil war against Bozizé in 2004-2007 that was quite brutal, and was crushed with assistance from France.

Bozizé's controversial re-election in 2011 helped set off another war in 2012. But the 2012 war drew in Islamic militants from further north in the Sahel/Chad/Mali.

This civil war lasted until 2014, and ended (once again) after a French-UN intervention.

The country is not entirely at peace yet, there are still militant groups operating outside of the capital.

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I was deployed there for Opération Sangaris. Fucking typical African shithole. It's hot, it stinks, it's humid. And worst of all we didn't actually fight. Mali was great because we kicked the shit out of Islamists, and got out. There, locals loved us for five minutes, then there were rumors some of our guys paid kids in food to fuck them.

I wouldn't be too surprised if it was true. You couldn't go on patrol without local women and kids trying to seduce you. Some dumb guys fell for it, some pedos were happy to oblige. Public opinion turned against us fast. We should just let them slaughter each other. Fucking savages, we had to intervene a dozen time there already. No good guys there, the Christians are more animist than anything else, the Muslims are Boko Haram tier.

>>67314072
In Africa specifically, we tried to actually civilise them. Replaced most traditional institutions, told them they were the children of the Republic, that this was a Republican Empire. We wasted our money on infrastructures, public buildings instead of exploiting resources. So when we left, there was nothing left. Before independence, there were entirely dependent on the motherland, so when we left there was nothing, just the local elite educated in France, and the French-trained military. Also, there was no or very little European settlement because we were in constant demographic crisis. Only Algeria was actually colonised, and would have been a very successful state if it remained ruled Pied-Noirs.

We tried to set up some kind of Commonwealth, but it failed. But honestly, they never really got independence. It's an open secret that we're the one running the show in our former colonies. Even those that turned commie for some time.

>>67314510
Did you find a cute Centafrique wife down there?

>>67314510
How do you think France should have went about its colonial activities? Britian and Japan (before ww2) put a lot into infastructure also but many of their former colonies do not suffer those issues. Is the way France put in infastructure?

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>>67314610
God, no. Their women are really not great looking, and we were told that 5 to 15% of them have AIDS. Some guys were horny enough to try their luck, though. I've been told that for 10€ you could get quite a few women and do whatever you want to them. Also some honestly pretty disgusting stories of guys stopping on patrols and fucking random women (young, less young, too young, married or not, muslims or christians) behind the nearest hut in exchange of biscuits. Just shows how desperate these women are.

Now, women from Côte d'Ivoire, or even better Tuareg women, that's a different story. I got close to the daughter of our interpret during Serval, she made me discover Tuareg Blues. She was very proud, pretty intelligent, beautiful. I swear I almost asked her to marry me. Her tribe would have probably pursued us back to France on camels and Toyota trucks to slaughter me, though.

>>67314508
>>67314510
In other words it's a fucking shitshow

>>67315091
is the english guy producing biscuits there?

>>67315391
Yes? I thought it was common knowledge that the biggest resource the British got out of their African colonies were biscuits. Of course there are no clear numbers, but some historians estimate that up to a million Africans were affected in some way by British biscuit mining, either directly working in terrible conditions or being displaced from their ancestral lands to make way for mines. After a while they even started importing Chinese and Indians laborers.

This thread was pretty enlightening, thanks guys.

>>67315091
>Belgium

>>67314510
>>67315091
what is the main cause of problems in africa, they seem completly unable to maintain anything beyond a neolithic lifestyle, is it race or some other factor that plays in the most?