ABSTRACT
The countries reviewed in this section on Central African States are Cameroon, The Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Burundi, Rwanda, the Popular Republic of Congo (PRC), the Democratic Republic of Gabon (DRG) and Zaire (see Figure 3.1). This group is conventionally known as Central Africa (except that Burundi and Rwanda are sometimes classified with East Africa), but it is not a uniform group – Chad for example stretches from the Sahara desert southwards into savannah. Zaire is mostly within the tropical rain forest belt, and Rwanda and Burundi are both hilly and mountainous countries. They also vary significantly by size – both geographically and in population, and by density of settlement (see Table 3.1). Rwanda and Burundi are small in terms of population and geographical area, but high in population density. Zaire has the largest population in this group, yet because of its vast geographical size (four times that of France) is settled at a very low density. They vary greatly in terms of resource endowment too. Zaire has a wealth of minerals, including copper and uranium. Gabon was poor at independence, but soon after struck a major oil field, which has transformed the state’s finances. Cameroon is expanding its smaller oil industry. The Central African Republic has a wealth of diamonds, and also valuable metals. On the other hand, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, Burundi and Chad have poor mineral endowments.
