87-594: Rebels: The Central African Republic Bush War was a civil war in the Central African Republic which lasted from 2004 to 2007 between Union of Democratic Forces for Unity (UFDR) rebels and government forces. The rebellion began after François Bozizé seized the nation's presidency in 2003 . Actual fighting began in 2004. Around 10,000 people were displaced because of the civil unrest. The rebellion consisted of multiple rebel groups, several of which were of very small size and founded only towards
174-405: A 22% risk of falling into civil war in a given five-year period, while a country with no primary commodity exports has a 1% risk. When disaggregated, only petroleum and non-petroleum groupings showed different results: a country with relatively low levels of dependence on petroleum exports is at slightly less risk, while a high level of dependence on oil as an export results in slightly more risk of
261-703: A State. (b) That the insurgent civil authority exercises de facto authority over the population within a determinate portion of the national territory. (c) That the armed forces act under the direction of an organized authority and are prepared to observe the ordinary laws of war. (d) That the insurgent civil authority agrees to be bound by the provisions of the Convention. According to a 2017 review study of civil war research, there are three prominent explanations for civil war: greed-based explanations which center on individuals' desire to maximize their profits, grievance-based explanations which center on conflict as
348-536: A cease fire and peace agreement with the government in Libreville . The agreement was completed under the auspices of an ad hoc committee of CEMAC led by President Omar Bongo of Gabon . Jean Jacques Demafouth signed on behalf of the APRD and DDR minister Cyriaque Gonda on behalf of the government. A six-person board was established to monitor the implementation of the agreement's terms. The APRD agreement paved
435-411: A civil war is contested by academics. Some political scientists define a civil war as having more than 1,000 casualties, while others further specify that at least 100 must come from each side. The Correlates of War , a dataset widely used by scholars of conflict, classifies civil wars as having over 1000 war-related casualties per year of conflict. This rate is a small fraction of the millions killed in
522-506: A civil war rises approximately proportionately with the size of a country's population. There is a correlation between poverty and civil war, but the causality (which causes the other) is unclear. Some studies have found that in regions with lower income per capita, the likelihood of civil war is greater. Economists Simeon Djankov and Marta Reynal-Querol argue that the correlation is spurious, and that lower income and heightened conflict are instead products of other phenomena. In contrast,
609-419: A civil war than national dependence on another primary commodity. The authors of the study interpreted this as being the result of the ease by which primary commodities may be extorted or captured compared to other forms of wealth; for example, it is easy to capture and control the output of a gold mine or oil field compared to a sector of garment manufacturing or hospitality services. A second source of finance
696-774: A mission in Baraka, Gabon, on what is now Libreville, in 1842. In 1846, the Brazilian slave ship L'Elizia , carrying slaves from the Congo, was captured near Loango by the French navy which was tasked with contributing to the British Blockade of Africa . Fifty-two of the freed slaves were resettled on the site of Libreville (French for "Freetown") in 1849. Following the French Revolution of 1848 and establishment of
783-626: A response to socioeconomic or political injustice, and opportunity-based explanations which center on factors that make it easier to engage in violent mobilization. According to the study, the most influential explanation for civil war onset is the opportunity-based explanation by James Fearon and David Laitin in their 2003 American Political Science Review article. Scholars investigating the cause of civil war are attracted by two opposing theories, greed versus grievance . Roughly stated: are conflicts caused by differences of ethnicity, religion or other social affiliation , or do conflicts begin because it
870-445: A standardized avenue to influence government and increase the commitment credibility of established peace treaties. It is the strength of a nation's institutionalization and good governance—not the presence of democracy nor the poverty level—that is the number one indicator of the chance of a repeat civil war, according to Walter. High levels of population dispersion and, to a lesser extent, the presence of mountainous terrain, increased
957-460: A stronger emphasis should be put on personal data and human perspective of the people in conflict. Beyond Keen, several other authors have introduced works that either disprove greed vs. grievance theory with empirical data, or dismiss its ultimate conclusion. Authors such as Cristina Bodea and Ibrahim Elbadawi, who co-wrote the entry, "Riots, coups and civil war: Revisiting the greed and grievance debate", argue that empirical data can disprove many of
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#17327655435211044-522: A study by Alex Braithwaite and colleagues showed systematic evidence of "a causal arrow running from poverty to conflict". While there is a supposed negative correlation between absolute welfare levels and the probability of civil war outbreak, relative deprivation may actually be a more pertinent possible cause. Historically, higher inequality levels led to higher civil war probability. Since colonial rule or population size are known to increase civil war risk, also, one may conclude that "the discontent of
1131-470: A unity government and local elections in 2009 and parliamentary and presidential elections in 2010; the new government was formed in January 2009. Civil war A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country ). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies. The term
1218-488: Is a calque of Latin bellum civile which was used to refer to the various civil wars of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC. Most modern civil wars involve intervention by outside powers. According to Patrick M. Regan in his book Civil Wars and Foreign Powers (2000) about two thirds of the 138 intrastate conflicts between the end of World War II and 2000 saw international intervention. A civil war
1305-506: Is home to a shipbuilding industry, brewing industry, and sawmills. The city exports raw materials such as wood, rubber and cocoa from the city's main port, and the deepwater port at Owendo . Gabon Airlines has its headquarters in Libreville. Prior to their dissolutions, both Air Gabon and Gabon Express were headquartered on the grounds of Libreville International Airport . The French Army 's 6th Marine Infantry Battalion
1392-464: Is home to one-third of the national population. Various native peoples lived in or used the area that is now Libreville before colonization, including the Mpongwé tribe. French admiral Édouard Bouët-Willaumez negotiated a trade and protection treaty with the local Mpongwé ruler, Antchoué Komé Rapontcombo (known to the French as King Denis), in 1839. American missionaries from New England established
1479-707: Is in the economic best interests of individuals and groups to start them? Scholarly analysis supports the conclusion that economic and structural factors are more important than those of identity in predicting occurrences of civil war. A comprehensive study of civil war was carried out by a team from the World Bank in the early 21st century. The study framework, which came to be called the Collier–Hoeffler Model, examined 78 five-year increments when civil war occurred from 1960 to 1999, as well as 1,167 five-year increments of "no civil war" for comparison, and subjected
1566-400: Is national diasporas , which can fund rebellions and insurgencies from abroad. The study found that statistically switching the size of a country's diaspora from the smallest found in the study to the largest resulted in a sixfold increase in the chance of a civil war. Higher male secondary school enrollment, per capita income and economic growth rate all had significant effects on reducing
1653-404: Is not. The study therefore concluded that the economic model of opportunity cost better explained the findings. Most proxies for "grievance"—the theory that civil wars begin because of issues of identity, rather than economics—were statistically insignificant, including economic equality, political rights, ethnic polarization and religious fractionalization. Only ethnic dominance, the case where
1740-468: Is often a high-intensity conflict, often involving regular armed forces , that is sustained, organized and large-scale. Civil wars may result in large numbers of casualties and the consumption of significant resources. Civil wars since the end of World War II have lasted on average just over four years, a dramatic rise from the one-and-a-half-year average of the 1900–1944 period. While the rate of emergence of new civil wars has been relatively steady since
1827-695: Is provided in the text of the Conventions. Nevertheless, the International Committee of the Red Cross has sought to provide some clarification through its commentaries on the Geneva Conventions , noting that the Conventions are "so general, so vague, that many of the delegations feared that it might be taken to cover any act committed by force of arms". Accordingly, the commentaries provide for different 'conditions' on which
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#17327655435211914-602: Is where the city stands, labeling the city as a part of north-west Gabon. In terms of the country's surrounding boundaries, north is Cameroon , east is Congo , and south-east is the Democratic Republic of the Congo . It also rides the shores of the South Atlantic Ocean, which is on the country's west coast for reference. Additionally, in terms of aquatic geography, the Komo River passes through
2001-531: The French Second Republic , the former slaves organized an election to select leaders of the new village in 1849. A former slave named Mountier was elected Mayor of Libreville. Libreville was the administrative capital of France's Congo-Gabon colony between 1888 and 1904, when the capital moved to Brazzaville . In 1910, Gabon became part of French Equatorial Africa ( Afrique équatoriale française , AEF). French companies were allowed to exploit
2088-722: The Middle Congo (modern-day Congo-Brazzaville). It soon became necessary to build a railroad that would connect Brazzaville , the terminus of the river navigation on the Congo River and the Ubangi River , with the Atlantic coast. As rapids make it impossible to navigate on the Congo River past Brazzaville, and the coastal railroad terminus site had to allow for the construction of a deep-sea port, authorities chose
2175-690: The Salvadoran Civil War , Wood finds that traditional explanations of greed and grievance are not sufficient to explain the emergence of that insurgent movement. Instead, she argues that "emotional engagements" and "moral commitments" are the main reasons why thousand of civilians, most of them from poor and rural backgrounds, joined or supported the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front , despite individually facing both high risks and virtually no foreseeable gains. Wood also attributes participation in
2262-617: The Second Sudanese Civil War and Cambodian Civil War , for example, but excludes several highly publicized conflicts, such as The Troubles of Northern Ireland and the struggle of the African National Congress in Apartheid -era South Africa . Based on the 1,000-casualties-per-year criterion, there were 213 civil wars from 1816 to 1997, 104 of which occurred from 1944 to 1997. If one uses
2349-543: The ethno-linguistic fractionalization index (ELF) used by Fearon, Laitin and other political scientists is flawed. ELF, Cederman states, measures diversity on a country's population-wide level and makes no attempt to determine the number of ethnic groups in relation to what role they play in the power of the state and its military. Cederman believes it makes little sense to test hypotheses relating national ethnic diversity to civil war outbreak without any explicit reference to how many different ethnic groups actually hold power in
2436-444: The forced displacement of millions more. Civil wars have further resulted in economic collapse; Somalia , Burma (Myanmar), Uganda and Angola are examples of nations that were considered to have had promising futures before being engulfed in civil wars. James Fearon , a scholar of civil wars at Stanford University , defines a civil war as "a violent conflict within a country fought by organized groups that aim to take power at
2523-453: The places of worship , they are predominantly Christian churches and temples: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Libreville ( Catholic Church ), Église de l'Alliance chrétienne et missionnaire du Gabon ( Alliance World Fellowship ), Assemblies of God , Evangelical Church of Gabon . There are also Muslim mosques. Libreville is one of several African cities where French is truly becoming a native language, with some local features. The city
2610-531: The 1815 Congress of Vienna as the United Kingdom , Habsburg Austria , Prussia , France , and Russia ) would frequently coordinate interventions in other nations' civil wars, nearly always on the side of the incumbent government. Given the military strength of the Great Powers, these interventions nearly always proved decisive and quickly ended the civil wars. There were several exceptions from
2697-427: The 19th century and in the early 20th century tended to be short; civil wars between 1900 and 1944 lasted on average one and a half years. The state itself formed the obvious center of authority in the majority of cases, and the civil wars were thus fought for control of the state. This meant that whoever had control of the capital and the military could normally crush resistance. A rebellion which failed to quickly seize
Central African Republic Bush War - Misplaced Pages Continue
2784-610: The CPJP and the UFDR (now aligned with the government) signed a peace agreement in Bangui, calling for the demilitarization of Bria. On 10 December 2012, the conflict restarted with rebel groups accusing President Bozizé of violating the terms of their earlier agreement. The new rebel coalition, known as Séléka , overthrew Bozizé and took the capital, Bangui , on 24 March 2013, and rebel leader Michel Djotodia declared himself President of
2871-545: The CPJP announced that it was ready to end fighting, but made the initiation of peace talks conditional on a clarification by the government of the status of former CPJP head Charles Massi , who had been missing and presumed to have been killed in a government prison. After intensified government and international mediation efforts, the CPJP signed a ceasefire with the government on June 12. Violence soon resumed and more than 50 deaths were reported in September 2011. On 8 October
2958-644: The Central African Republic . The war ended. In every case of rebellion, there are abuses, I cannot deny that, there are abuses. - CAR President François Bozizé According to the Human Rights Watch (HRW), hundreds of civilians were killed, more than 10,000 houses burned and approximately 212,000 persons have fled their homes to live in desperate conditions deep in the bush in northern Central African Republic. Further negotiations resulted in an agreement in 2008 for reconciliation,
3045-484: The London School of Economics is one of the major critics of greed vs. grievance theory, defined primarily by Paul Collier, and argues the point that a conflict, although he cannot define it, cannot be pinpointed to simply one motive. He believes that conflicts are much more complex and thus should not be analyzed through simplified methods. He disagrees with the quantitative research methods of Collier and believes
3132-481: The Royal Navy, moved to consolidate control over French Equatorial Africa. With national independence on the horizon, Léon M'ba won Libreville's first free mayoral election in 1956. Mba was later the first president of independent Gabon. The city's population was only 32,000 at independence, but grew rapidly thereafter. It now houses one-third of the national population. From north to south, major districts of
3219-583: The UFDR headquarters in Birao, the UFDR and the CAR government signed the Birao Peace Agreement on 1 April 2007. This agreement provides for an amnesty for the UFDR, its recognition as a political party, and the integration of its fighters into the national army. The remaining rebel groups continued fighting the government. In August 2007 Miskine was appointed as a presidential adviser. Miskine rejected
3306-501: The agreement later, or signed similar agreements with the government (e.g. UFR on 15 December 2008). The only major group not to sign an agreement at the time was the CPJP , which continued its activities and signed a peace agreement with the government on 25 August 2012. In November 2004, at least 20 people were killed in a raid on the remote town of Birao in the north-east of the Central African Republic. Thousands of people marched into
3393-582: The application of the Geneva Convention would depend; the commentary, however, points out that these should not be interpreted as rigid conditions. The conditions listed by the ICRC in its commentary are as follows: (1) That the Party in revolt against the de jure Government possesses an organized military force, an authority responsible for its acts, acting within a determinate territory and having
3480-589: The appointment, saying that the government had violated the Syrte agreement, in particular that it would fail to protect him from prosecution by the International Criminal Court . The Court had started investigating numerous war crimes that allegedly occurred during Bozize's 2002-03 coup attempt against the Patasse government, in which Miskine had been a top aide. On 9 May 2008 the APRD signed
3567-490: The capital and control of the military for itself normally found itself doomed to rapid destruction. For example, the fighting associated with the 1871 Paris Commune occurred almost entirely in Paris , and ended quickly once the military sided with the government at Versailles and conquered Paris. The power of non-state actors resulted in a lower value placed on sovereignty in the 18th and 19th centuries, which further reduced
Central African Republic Bush War - Misplaced Pages Continue
3654-426: The capital of the CAR, Bangui , on November 8, and pleaded for the government's troops to confront the UFDR. Twenty members of the government were killed, and only three of the rebels died in this attack. It was also confirmed that the UFDR had gained access to several armored vehicles, including a plane that landed in Birao earlier to bring supplies. On November 13, 2006, a third town in northern CAR, Sam Ouandja ,
3741-403: The center or in a region, or to change government policies". Ann Hironaka further specifies that one side of a civil war is the state . Stathis Kalyvas defines civil war as "armed combat taking place within the boundaries of a recognized sovereign entity between parties that are subject to a common authority at the outset of the hostilities." The intensity at which a civil disturbance becomes
3828-456: The chance of civil war. Specifically, a male secondary school enrollment 10% above the average reduced the chance of a conflict by about 3%, while a growth rate 1% higher than the study average resulted in a decline in the chance of a civil war of about 1%. The study interpreted these three factors as proxies for earnings forgone by rebellion, and therefore that lower forgone earnings encourage rebellion. Phrased another way: young males (who make up
3915-445: The chance of conflict. Both of these factors favor rebels, as a population dispersed outward toward the borders is harder to control than one concentrated in a central region, while mountains offer terrain where rebels can seek sanctuary. Rough terrain was highlighted as one of the more important factors in a 2006 systematic review. The various factors contributing to the risk of civil war rise increase with population size. The risk of
4002-479: The city and empties into the ocean. The Komo River also stands as a potential hydroelectric source of power for the city which could generate supportive amounts of energy and power. Several city districts provide distinct and separate benefits throughout the city as well. In terms of nightlife, the Quartier Louis sector is most renowned. One of this zone's sides includes the coast, and this heavily influences
4089-668: The city are the residential area Batterie IV , Quartier Louis (known for its nightlife ), Mont-Bouët and Nombakélé (busy commercial areas), Glass (the first European settlement in Gabon), Oloumi (a major industrial area) and Lalala , a residential area. The city's port and train station on the Trans-Gabon Railway line to Franceville lie in Owendo , south of the main built-up area. Inland from these districts lie poorer residential areas. North-west of Equatorial Guinea
4176-453: The city. National Taxis operate around the city. Each district has a colour for its taxis and Libreville's is red. The National Society of Transport ( SOGATRA ) launched new taxis that operate on a counter system in 2014. The Gabonese Transport Company operates a bus service to all districts of Libreville. The Omar Bongo University was founded in 1970. There are several high-end international schools in Libreville, including: Among
4263-474: The civil war to the value that insurgents assigned to changing social relations in El Salvador , an experience she defines as the "pleasure of agency". Ann Hironaka , author of Neverending Wars , divides the modern history of civil wars into the pre-19th century, 19th century to early 20th century, and late 20th century. In 19th-century Europe, the length of civil wars fell significantly, largely due to
4350-433: The colonized, caused by the creation of borders across tribal lines and bad treatment by the colonizers" is one important cause of civil conflicts. The more time that has elapsed since the last civil war, the less likely it is that a conflict will recur. The study had two possible explanations for this: one opportunity-based and the other grievance-based. The elapsed time may represent the depreciation of whatever capital
4437-514: The conduct of internal conflicts". James Fearon and David Laitin find that ethnic and religious diversity does not make civil war more likely. They instead find that factors that make it easier for rebels to recruit foot soldiers and sustain insurgencies, such as "poverty—which marks financially & bureaucratically weak states and also favors rebel recruitment—political instability, rough terrain, and large populations" make civil wars more likely. Such research finds that civil wars happen because
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#17327655435214524-579: The conflict between 2007 and 2012. The most important agreement, the Global Peace Accord (signed in Libreville , Gabon , on 21 June 2008), was first signed by the ARPD, UFDR, and FDPC groups. The agreement granted amnesty for any acts perpetrated against the state prior to the agreement, and called for a disarmament and demobilization process to integrate former rebels into society and the regular CAR armed forces. Other rebel groups signed on to
4611-695: The country average”, going against the opportunity-based explanation for civil war outbreak. Michael Bleaney, Professor of International Economics at the University of Nottingham , published a 2009 paper titled Incidence, Onset and Duration of Civil Wars: A Review of the Evidence , which tested numerous variables for their relationship to civil war outbreak with different datasets, including that utilized by Fearon and Laitin. Bleaney concluded that neither ethnoreligious diversity, as measured by fractionalization, nor another variable, ethnic polarization, defined as
4698-507: The country avoided ethnic dominance. The study interpreted this as stating that minority groups are more likely to rebel if they feel that they are being dominated, but that rebellions are more likely to occur the more homogeneous the population and thus more cohesive the rebels. These two factors may thus be seen as mitigating each other in many cases. David Keen, a professor at the Development Studies Institute at
4785-432: The data set to regression analysis to see the effect of various factors. The factors that were shown to have a statistically significant effect on the chance that a civil war would occur in any given five-year period were: A high proportion of primary commodities in national exports significantly increases the risk of a conflict. A country at "peak danger", with commodities comprising 32% of gross domestic product , has
4872-631: The end of the conflict. Apart from the UFDR, the conflict included the People's Army for the Restoration of Democracy (CAR) (APRD), Groupe d'action patriotique pour la liberation de Centrafrique (GAPLC), the Movement of Central African Liberators for Justice (MLCJ), the Front démocratique Centrafricain (FDC), and Union of Republican Forces (UFR). A number of peace agreements have been signed to resolve
4959-422: The extent to which individuals in a population are distributed across different ethnic groups, were "a sufficient measure of diversity as it affects the probability of conflict." In a state torn by civil war, the contesting powers often do not have the ability to commit or the trust to believe in the other side's commitment to put an end to war. When considering a peace agreement, the involved parties are aware of
5046-408: The general rule of quick civil wars during this period. The American Civil War (1861–1865) was unusual for at least two reasons: it was fought around regional identities as well as political ideologies, and it ended through a war of attrition , rather than with a decisive battle over control of the capital, as was the norm. The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) proved exceptional because both sides in
5133-561: The geographical distribution of ethnic groups within countries, as this can affect their access to regional resources and commodities, which in turn can lead to conflict. A third theme explored by Cederman is that ethnolinguistic fractionalization does not quantify the extent to which there is pre-existing economic inequality between ethnic groups within countries. In a 2011 article, Cederman and fellow researchers describe finding that “in highly unequal societies, both rich and poor groups fight more often than those groups whose wealth lies closer to
5220-701: The high incentives to withdraw once one of them has taken an action that weakens their military, political or economical power. Commitment problems may deter a lasting peace agreement as the powers in question are aware that neither of them is able to commit to their end of the bargain in the future. States are often unable to escape conflict traps (recurring civil war conflicts) due to the lack of strong political and legal institutions that motivate bargaining, settle disputes, and enforce peace settlements. Political scientist Barbara F. Walter suggests that most contemporary civil wars are actually repeats of earlier civil wars that often arise when leaders are not accountable to
5307-519: The incentive to secede. The two major global ideologies, monarchism and democracy , led to several civil wars. However, a bi-polar world, divided between the two ideologies, did not develop, largely due to the dominance of monarchists through most of the period. The monarchists would thus normally intervene in other countries to stop democratic movements taking control and forming democratic governments, which were seen by monarchists as being both dangerous and unpredictable. The Great Powers (defined in
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#17327655435215394-603: The insurgents recognition as belligerents for the purposes only of the present Convention; or (d) That the dispute has been admitted to the agenda of the Security Council or the General Assembly of the United Nations as being a threat to international peace, a breach of the peace, or an act of aggression. (4) (a) That the insurgents have an organization purporting to have the characteristics of
5481-452: The lack of rain, Libreville remains very cloudy during this time of year. As is common with many cities with this climate, average temperatures remain relatively constant throughout the course of the year, with average high temperatures at around 29 °C (84 °F). Léon-Mba International Airport is the largest airport in Gabon and is located around 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) north of
5568-447: The largest ethnic group comprises a majority of the population, increased the risk of civil war. A country characterized by ethnic dominance has nearly twice the chance of a civil war. However, the combined effects of ethnic and religious fractionalization, i.e. the greater chance that any two randomly chosen people will be from separate ethnic or religious groups, the less chance of a civil war, were also significant and positive, as long as
5655-410: The less-stringent 1,000 casualties total criterion, there were over 90 civil wars between 1945 and 2007, with 20 ongoing civil wars as of 2007. The Geneva Conventions do not specifically define the term "civil war"; nevertheless, they do outline the responsibilities of parties in "armed conflict not of an international character". This includes civil wars; however, no specific definition of civil war
5742-434: The major European powers divested themselves of their colonies at an increasing rate: the number of ex-colonial states jumped from about 30 to almost 120 after the war. The rate of state formation leveled off in the 1980s, at which point few colonies remained. More states also meant more states in which to have long civil wars. Hironaka statistically measures the impact of the increased number of ex-colonial states as increasing
5829-439: The means of respecting and ensuring respect for the Convention. (2) That the legal Government is obliged to have recourse to the regular military forces against insurgents organized as military and in possession of a part of the national territory. (3) (a) That the de jure Government has recognized the insurgents as belligerents; (b) That it has claimed for itself the rights of a belligerent; or (c) That it has accorded
5916-467: The mid-19th century, the increasing length of those wars has resulted in increasing numbers of wars ongoing at any one time. For example, there were no more than five civil wars underway simultaneously in the first half of the 20th century while there were over 20 concurrent civil wars close to the end of the Cold War . Since 1945, civil wars have resulted in the deaths of over 25 million people, as well as
6003-523: The nature of the conflicts as battles for the power center of the state, the strength of centralized governments, and the normally quick and decisive intervention by other states to support the government. Following World War II the duration of civil wars grew past the norm of the pre-19th century, largely due to weakness of the many postcolonial states and the intervention by major powers on both sides of conflict. The most obvious commonality to civil wars are that they occur in fragile states . Civil wars in
6090-707: The number of civil wars. For example, the pirates of the Barbary Coast were recognized as de facto states because of their military power. The Barbary pirates thus had no need to rebel against the Ottoman Empire – their nominal state government – to gain recognition of their sovereignty. Conversely, states such as Virginia and Massachusetts in the United States of America did not have sovereign status, but had significant political and economic independence coupled with weak federal control, reducing
6177-481: The populace resides. Libreville features a tropical monsoon climate ( Am ) with a lengthy wet season and a short dry season . The city's wet season , which is also its autumn, winter and spring, spans about nine months (September through May), with a great deal of rain falling during these months. Its dry season (or summer) lasts from June through August, and is caused by the cold Benguela Current reaching its northernmost extent and suppressing rainfall. Despite
6264-445: The population and taking 32 cows from the village, as well as farming implements and sacks of peanuts. The FDPC's Abdoulaye Miskine signed a peace agreement with the government on 2 February 2007 in Syrte. The agreement called for a cessation of hostilities, the billeting of FDPC fighters and their integration with FACA, the liberation of political prisoners, and the integration of FDPC into government. After French Mirage jets bombed
6351-485: The possible activities available in the area. Commercial areas within Libreville are housed in the Mont-Bouët and Nombakélé districts, which feature several shopping centers and stations selling purchasable goods. Oloumi contains much of the city's industry, integrating production separately from the districts that focus upon other aspects. Finally, Lalala and Batterie IV are residential and housing sectors, where much of
6438-588: The post-World War II incidence of civil wars by +165% over the pre-1945 number. Libreville Libreville is the capital and largest city of Gabon , located on the Gabon Estuary . Libreville occupies 65 square kilometres (25 sq mi) of the northwestern province of Estuaire . Libreville is also a port on the Gabon Estuary, near the Gulf of Guinea . As of the 2013 census, its population
6525-402: The proponents of greed theory and make the idea "irrelevant". They examine a myriad of factors and conclude that too many factors come into play with conflict, which cannot be confined to simply greed or grievance. Anthony Vinci makes a strong argument that "fungible concept of power and the primary motivation of survival provide superior explanations of armed group motivation and, more broadly,
6612-402: The public, when there is poor public participation in politics, and when there is a lack of transparency of information between the executives and the public. Walter argues that when these issues are properly reversed, they act as political and legal restraints on executive power forcing the established government to better serve the people. Additionally, these political and legal restraints create
6699-460: The rate of new civil wars had not increased appreciably; the drastic rise in the number of ongoing wars after World War II was a result of the tripling of the average duration of civil wars to over four years. This increase was a result of the increased number of states, the fragility of states formed after 1945, the decline in interstate war, and the Cold War rivalry. Following World War II,
6786-485: The rebellion was fought over and thus increase the opportunity cost of restarting the conflict. Alternatively, elapsed time may represent the gradual process of healing of old hatreds. The study found that the presence of a diaspora substantially reduced the positive effect of time, as the funding from diasporas offsets the depreciation of rebellion-specific capital. Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa has argued that an important cause of intergroup conflict may be
6873-726: The relative availability of women of reproductive age. He found that polygyny greatly increased the frequency of civil wars but not interstate wars. Gleditsch et al. did not find a relationship between ethnic groups with polygyny and increased frequency of civil wars but nations having legal polygamy may have more civil wars. They argued that misogyny is a better explanation than polygyny. They found that increased women's rights were associated with fewer civil wars and that legal polygamy had no effect after women's rights were controlled for. Political scholar Elisabeth Wood from Yale University offers yet another rationale for why civilians rebel and/or support civil war. Through her studies of
6960-561: The site of Ponta Negra instead of Libreville as originally envisaged. Construction of the Congo–Ocean Railway began in 1921, and Libreville was surpassed by the rapid growth of Pointe-Noire , farther down the coast. Libreville received its first bank branch when Bank of West Africa (BAO) opened a branch in 1930. In 1940, Libreville was the central focus of the Battle of Gabon as Charles de Gaulle 's Free French forces, supported by
7047-622: The state is weak; both authoritarian and democratic states can be stable if they have the financial and military capacity to put down rebellions. Some scholars, such as Lars-Erik Cederman of the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology , have criticized the data used by Fearon and Laitin to determine ethnic and religious diversity. In his 2007 paper Beyond Fractionalization: Mapping Ethnicity onto Nationalist Insurgencies , Cederman argues that
7134-460: The state. This suggests that ethnic, linguistic and religious cleavages can matter, depending on the extent to which the various groups have ability and influence to mobilize on either side of a forming conflict. Themes explored in Cederman's later work criticizing the use of ethnic fractionalization measures as input variables to predict civil war outbreak relate to these indices not accounting for
7221-459: The struggle received support from intervening great powers: Germany , Italy , and Portugal supported opposition leader Francisco Franco , while France and the Soviet Union supported the government (see proxy war ). In the 1990s, about twenty civil wars were occurring concurrently during an average year, a rate about ten times the historical average since the 19th century. However,
7308-437: The vast majority of combatants in civil wars) are less likely to join a rebellion if they are getting an education or have a comfortable salary, and can reasonably assume that they will prosper in the future. Low per capita income has also been proposed as a cause for grievance, prompting armed rebellion. However, for this to be true, one would expect economic inequality to also be a significant factor in rebellions, which it
7395-583: The way for further peace talks. On 21 June 2008 the FDPC joined the APRD and UFDR in signing the Libreville Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which reiterated and extended the provisions of the previous two agreements. On 25 August 2008 the CPJP finally acceded to the Libreville comprehensive agreement. The CPJP and UFDR continued to fight over control of artisanal diamond fields in western CAR, especially around Bria. In April
7482-515: Was 703,904. The area has been inhabited by the Mpongwe people since before the French acquired the land in 1839. It was later an American Christian mission , and a slave resettlement site, before becoming the chief port of the colony of French Equatorial Africa . By the time of Gabonese independence in 1960, the city was a trading post and minor administrative centre with a population of 32,000. Since 1960, Libreville has grown rapidly and now
7569-630: Was seized by the UFDR. Just three days later, claims stated that a fourth town, Ouadda , had been captured by the rebels. When the 20,000 residents of the city heard that the UFDR was going to capture the town, between 5,000 and 10,000 of those people fled, mostly to the neighboring cities of Bambari and Bangui. The UFDR were reportedly planning to take over the city of Bria , though rumours also supported that an additional attack may occur in Ndele . In December 2006, Chadian troops in three army trucks attacked Bémal , located next to Bétoko , firing randomly at
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