I learned about the warning as this issue went to press, and it was too late to reach any of the hunting outfitters in CAR, most of whom were in transit to the country for the forest season. I think it's very significant that all of the major operators were headed to CAR despite the warning. Old Africa Hands know CAR has been in turmoil for years. One year, rebels closed the major road most operators use to provision their camps. Undaunted, some operators simply airlifted what they needed over the obstacle and hunted as usual. CAR is that kind of place. It's a huge sprawl of ungoverned territory with a dot of a capitol city in one corner where foreign aid pours in and where factions squabble over things. Periodically, one or more of the factions mass in the interior of the country, and that is what one usually has to watch out for - not the squabbling in Bangui. This time, however, the tension in Bangui seems to be greater than usual.
I am not going to make a hard and fast recommendation on CAR at this time. I will tell you what I would do personally. I would get in touch with my operator and ask him to give me the real skinny on the situation at the international airport, in Bangui and in the immediate environs of his camp. I would confirm that he had an back-channel way of getting out of the country in case of emergency. That done, I would grab my sat phone, a rifle and a few clothes, and I would go hunting....
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