AXMIN Chairman and CEO Provides Update for 2019 https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/42166/AXMIN-Chairman-and-CEO-Provides-Update-for-2019 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 14, 2019) - AXMIN Inc. (TSXV: AXM) ("AXMIN" or the "Company") Chairman and CEO Lucy Yan provides an update for 2019 commenting as follows: 2018 was a transformational year for our Company. Royalty payments together with the resolution of the long-standing accounts payable have placed AXMIN on a strong foundation and we intend to build on this foundation in 2019. Our main focus will be to become operational in the Central African Republic (CAR) to develop the Passendro asset. AXMIN has maintained a constant presence in country during this difficult time and enjoys an excellent relationship with the authorities in Bangui and also in Bambari. We are monitoring the security situation carefully and when security returns, we have plans in place to renew our operation. We note that the CAR arm forces (FACA) have been deployed to Bambari and are now being deployed in surrounding areas. We are informed by the authorities in Bangui that we should anticipate being operational again in the near future. To this end, we are expanding our presence in country and will add additional senior staff to assist this process. AXMIN has been approached by several potential strategic partners to assist with the development of the asset. The Company will commence a formal process to select the strategic partner once we have clarity on timing the return to Ndassima. We have completed an online data room for this purpose. The selection criteria will favor very large well capitalized companies with mining and infrastructure construction experience in Africa. The first objective will be to complete a site survey and then commence a phased development plan with rapid production being the priority. Going forward, AXMIN will have two distinct parts to our operation in that we anticipate having royalty income from our assets and having operational income from the CAR asset. In order to better facilitate transparency and maximize shareholder value, the Company is investigating how best to structure these two separate activities. AXMIN is taking advice in this regard and may create a separate entity for the purpose of realizing royalty income from Senegal and other potential assets that may be added. In 2019, the Company looks forward to being more communicative with our shareholders. We have commenced a presence on social media and will be providing an updated company presentation as well. Management is looking forward to another strong year for the Company in 2019 and will keep the market updated with further press releases on each of the matters above when appropriate. About AXMIN AXMIN is a Canadian exploration and development company with a strong focus on the African continent. AXMIN continues to closely monitor the political situation at its Feasibility Stage Passendro Gold Project in the Central African Republic. For more information regarding AXMIN visit our website at www.axmininc.com. Please also visit us on Facebook. For additional information, please contact AXMIN Inc.: Lucy Yan Chairman and CEO [email protected] AXMIN Inc. General Enquiries David de Jongh Weill Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary [email protected] +65 9781 8281 Investor Relations [email protected] www.axmininc.com
Note: The UPC was the main rebel group that controlled Bambari, Ndassima and the surrounding area. That group has now been removed, thus giving the government room to move in and secure everything. Axmin's gold deposit is in Ndassima. Despite Ali Darassa escaping, he has no force to command and his funding sources are now gone. https://corbeaunews-centrafrique.co...VkOE263WDkHO3xklcxPWuqEoSgfCpagbzIycISpYWJAfQ Sunday, January 13, 2019 around 6 am, after the complete destruction of the UPC military bases, the Portuguese forces left Bambari for the village Gbokologbo , second stronghold of the UPC in Ouaka , 60 kilometers on the Alindao axis . The objective according to the Minusca , clear the rebels in all the sector close to Bambari . Meanwhile, Rwandan soldiers from Minusca , based in the Alindao sub-prefecture , have been alerted of the next operation that will take place in the second stronghold of the UPC in Ouaka . Immediately, they spent the night from Saturday to Sunday, January 13 25 kilometers from Gbokologbo , blocking the northern exit of the rebels to Alindao . At the same time, the Portuguese forces , which are progressing from Bambari, begin to confront the rebels of the UPC 40 kilometers from Bambarito Digui village . As the fight progressed , the Portuguese advanced dangerously from Gbokologbo . Only 5 kilometers away, rebel leader Ali Darassa and his friend Hassa BOUBA , former advisor to President Faustin Archange TOUADERA , called for a cease-fire to negotiate. While the Minusca poses its conditions, including the dismantling of all the barriers, as well as the non-circulation of rebels with guns in the corner , Ali Darassa accepts all these imposed conditions. As a good rogue, rebel leader Ali Darassa and some of his men, including Hassan Bouba quietly left the village. As if that were not enough, some rebels came out behind the Rwandan soldiers and opened fire. Immediately, the Portuguese and Rwandan forces entered the Gbokologbo village to drive out the rebels. Here too, all the UPC bases were destroyed by the Minusca forces . While rebel leader Ali Darassa and his friend Hassan BOUBA fled to the town of Ngakobo , much to everyone's surprise, Hassan BOUBA was released on Tuesday (January 15th) in Ndélé , the provincial capital of Bamingui-Bangoran . Immediately, he is summoned by gde to leave the city. Since then, he is no longer visible. For the time being, no rebel, at least in weapon or outfit , is no longer visible in Bambari and Gbokologbo .
ECCAS Ambassador Expects CAR Peace Agreement To Be Reached At Khartoum Meeting https://www.urdupoint.com/en/world/eccas-ambassador-expects-car-peace-agreement-530913.html MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th January, 2019) The Economic Community of Central African States' (ECCAS) ambassador to the Central African Republic (CAR) told Sputnik on Wednesday that he believed the CAR government and the representatives of the country's militia groups would be able to reach a peace deal during their upcoming meeting in the Sudanese capital. A week ago, the Sudanese Foreign Ministry announced that the next round of peace talks would be held in Khartoum on January 24. "I expect an agreement between the CAR government and the 14 armed groups invited for the dialogue ... ECCAS does support an inclusive agreement for peace in CAR," Adolphe Nahayo, who will be part of the ECCAS delegation to the meeting, said. The Central African Republic has been marred by clashes between the predominantly Muslim armed group Seleka, the Christian Anti-balaka militia, and the government forces since 2012. In August 2018, Seleka and the Anti-balaka militia agreed to establish a platform for consultations on sustainable peace in the African nation. The groups then also called on the government to seek help from Russia, the European Union, and other regional and international players in the reconciliation efforts.
The Central African Republic gets set for free trade https://www.uneca.org/stories/central-african-republic-gets-set-free-trade Yaounde, 18 January 2019 (ECA) – A total of 83 leaders from the public and private sectors of the Central African Republic (CAR) have completed a three-day training to appropriate rules of origin procedures for accrediting national industrial products into the ECCAS-CEMAC Harmonized Preferential Tariff regime. Facilitated by the Subregional Office for Central Africa of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), the training took place in Bangui as part of a series that has already benefitted local investors and administrative officials in Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, Gabon, Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The series of training ultimately seeks to fully activate free trade within the ECCAS and help to operationalize the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), whose legal instruments were signed on 21 March 2018 in Kigali, Rwanda. The trainees are expected to use the insights from the workshop to make better use of the current preferential tariff regime in place across ECCAS countries, given that current ECCAS arrangements have removed tariffs from the intraregional export-import of items that have been locally produced and transformed, yet were little known or applied on the field. "In prelude to our exposure to the huge opportunities the continental marketplace (AfCFTA), the appropriation of the sub-regional market is a challenge that we must first tackle together as the public and private sector” said the CAR Minister of Trade and Industry – Mr. Come Hassan, who opened the training session. “This training, which is an essential link in the chain leading us towards a free trade area, will therefore plug the knowledge gaps we face around the contours of intra-African trade,” he added. He said it was high time the CAR worked to the extent that its “market becomes a supplier” of finished products to the Central African subregion and beyond. For his part, Mr. Simon Fouda – Economic Affairs Officer and Representative of the Director of ECA's Subregional Office for Central Africa, called on the beneficiaries of the training to immerse themselves in the mastery procedures for benefitting from the CEEAC-CEMAC preferential tariff for local industrial products, as this will "concretely exude the benefits of the Central African Free Trade Area". Tariff and non-tariff barriers as well as limited economic diversification and product complementarity among Central African states have contributed to the lower performance of the subregion in terms of intra-Africa trade, which stands at about 3% against the African average of 17%. The Bangui training brings the number of persons trained to take advantage of the ECCAS-CEMAC Harmonized Preferential Tariff regime to boost intraregional trade in Central Africa to almost 400 across six countries of the subregion. Actors in the rest of the countries of the subregion will also be reached. Funding for the activity was made possible thanks to a contribution agreement signed by the European Union (EU) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) for the further harmonization of ECCAS and CEMAC trade policy instruments. -ENDS- Issued by: The Sub-Regional Office for Central Africa UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) P.O. Box 14935 Yaounde, Cameroon Tel: (+237) 222504348 / 222504315 / 222504321 Email: [email protected] Media Contacts Abel Akara Ticha – Communication Officer Tel: 237 222504348
Peace Talks Between Rebels & Central African Republic Have Begun Before reading the article below, keep in mind that the CAR government has already taken back a significant amount of area through it's FACA forces, with the help of the UN and Russia. The peace talks and embargo only speed things up, but Axmin announced their update without any regards to the events taking place. The company will get back on the claim either way. https://africandailyvoice.com/en/20...s-inter-central-african-talks-khartoum-sudan/ NEWSROOM (ADV) – Inter-Central African peace talks in Central Africa are opening on Thursday, January 24, 2019 in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. The armed groups and the government are scheduled to meet in the Sudanese capital from 24 to 30 January to discuss the issues of peace in order to truly initiate the disarmament of armed groups for an end of the crisis in the Central African Republic, which is sinking into violence for several decades. Several personalities and representatives of armed groups are invited by the African Union. Almost all armed groups have agreed to take part in these exchanges, despite the context of tensions in some cities in the interior of the country. These so-called “last chance” talks present several issues. They come a the government launched the process of justice, something that these groups do not admit and advocate amnesty yet denounced by all. The division of power, especially the prime minister, is part of the demands of these armed groups, who then demand a government of national unity. This dialogue will open in a context of Western interferences following the Russian presence which made a remarkable diplomatic breakthrough for two years, after having been authorized by the UN Security Council to deliver arms to the Central African Armed Forces and to train them in handling these weapons. Also without losing sight of geopolitical and geostrategic issues. Already, in a statement, the government invites the peace-loving Central Africans to mobilize behind the negotiating team with the firm intention of reaching a compromise with the armed groups, in the strict respect of the Constitution, the National Unity, Territorial Integrity, Secular and Republican Form of the State and Conclusions of the Bangui National Forum. This dialogue of Khartoum, which is the first step according to the AU calendar, comes five months after the Russian initiative that brought together the 5 most influential rebel leaders of the country, who signed an agreement to guarantee the success of the African Peace Initiative.
CAR / Khartoum peace talks: Central African government and rebels actively seeking compromise to achieve lasting peace https://africandailyvoice.com/2019/...n-compromis-pour-parvenir-a-une-paix-durable/ 2019-01-26 Central African Republic , POLITICS Khartoum, Sudan (ADV) - At the end of a first day of exchange and contact between Central African rebels and the Bangui government, everything gives the impression that clashes and misfortunes will be the ills that will now befall any nobody lurking or not in the shadows who would try to destabilize the Central African Republic; the willingness of the various protagonists of the Khartoum dialogue has been shown and we can no longer manifest in the early hours of the talks prepared since 2017, under the auspices of the African Union and initiated at the end of August by the Russian Federation, always here at Khartoum. In the sudden capital, on 25 January, the Central African armed groups said they were optimistic about the continuation of the dialogue that takes place in the presence of the organizers and all the delegations that came to support the Central African brothers in this important moment in their history, in the search for lasting peace and national reconciliation for all the children of the country ... In their words, we mean a will to make a clean sweep of the past and disputes that have lasted too long, as evidenced by these words of a political adviser of the FPRC, Abakar Salom. Extract. For its part, the Central African government, through its head of mission in Khartoum, Firmin Ngrebado, hailed the fact that the representatives of the armed groups are all in favor of a peace agreement to get the country out of the deadlock and security. to truly rebuild. The government and rebel groups will therefore actively and responsibly seek this compromise, a prerequisite for the return of peace in the Central African Republic. An episode that promises to be difficult, according to some observers, to the extent that, according to them, the main demand made by the armed groups revolves around the division of power and the request for a government of national unity. However, it is important to note that at this stage of the exchanges, the demands of the rebel groups have already been heard by the Central African government. The government will certainly share its answers in the hours or days to come ... Meanwhile, all the actors and organizers of these meetings welcomed the first moments of this dialogue and especially the day of 25 January 2019 behind closed doors, marked by a presentation on the origin of the conflict in Central Africa, the government statement of the Central African Mission in Khartoum and exchanges between the two sides in a question-and-answer format. The rest of the process is certainly to come, but in Khartoum for the moment, on the future of the CAR, it is the tranquility that reigns.
Hi @Jon Alba I would be interested to learn about your forecasts for this one? Any degree of peace in some of these war torn areas must be good news for companies such as Axmif?
In my honest opinion, I don't think Axmin needs either the peace deal or the embargo dropped to get them back to their gold mine. However, if either one or both scenarios pan out, it could speed things up quickly. If you look at Barrick, Roxgold, and other African producers in Mali, Burkina Faso, etc, they produce gold and have rebel/terrorist groups around them all the time, yet they still manage to make it work. Bambari was recently secured and that's the key town next to the gold mine. We will get lots of information over the next week or two, hopefully the embargo drops.
Bangui calls for UN arms embargo to be lifted https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-6640235/Bangui-calls-UN-arms-embargo-lifted.html By AFP PUBLISHED: 08:35 EST, 28 January 2019 | UPDATED: 10:00 EST, 28 January 2019 The prime minister of Central African Republic led a rally of around 3,000 people on Monday calling for a global arms embargo to be lifted ahead of a UN meeting later this week. The mineral-rich country, wracked by ethnic and religious conflict since 2013, has been subject to a UN Security Council arms and ammunition embargo for the past five years. Speaking on a podium in Bangui's central Place des Martyrs, Prime Minister Mathieu Simplice Sarandji said: "This is a lock that deserves to be opened, this is an embargo which strikes our defence and security forces." "The government respects the embargo while armed groups receive weapons! The people of Central African Republic can not understand this law of double standards," he said to cheers from the crowds in the capital. The UN Security Council will on Thursday decide whether to renew the embargo, which bans weapon supplies to the country unless approved by a UN sanctions committee. The authorities in Bangui have repeatedly called on the UN to lift the embargo. The sanctions are aimed at ensuring imported weapons do not end up in the hands of militias in the corruption-prone country. The committee has previously approved shipments of weapons from France and Russia but Chinese weapons deliveries have been blocked. A UN report last year said "the recent acquisition of arms by the government has prompted factions" of militias to rearm. Several protesters on Monday blamed UN Security Council member France for maintaining the embargo. "We have soldiers who no longer work because of the embargo. It's because of France," said demonstrator Pierre. "Only the army can ensure the security of CAR. We want Central African Republic to regain its sovereignty, we want the total lifting of the embargo," said another protester, Fiacre. One of the world's poorest nations, Central African Republic has struggled to recover from a 2013 civil war that erupted when President Francois Bozize, a Christian, was overthrown by mainly Muslim Seleka rebels. In response, Christians, who account for about 80 percent of the population, organised vigilante units dubbed "anti-Balaka" in reference to the balaka machetes used by Seleka rebels. Thousands of people have died in the violence, 700,000 been internally displaced and another 570,000 have fled abroad.
Central African Republic Peace Talks 'Going Well' - Sudan Observer https://www.urdupoint.com/en/world/central-african-republic-peace-talks-going-w-542163.html KHARTOUM (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 28th January, 2019) Talks in Khartoum to hammer out a peace deal between the government of Central African Republic and numerous armed groups are progressing, a Sudanese observer told Sputnik on Monday. The African Union-brokered negotiations have been on since last Thursday. They are observed by the UN, Sudan, Gabon, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, and Congo. "The talks are going well ... The African Union has listened to them [sides] and put forth its first document with proposals for different parties," Ata Al-Mannan, a state minister with the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, said to Sputnik. The minister said observers were sifting through the union's recommendations, which will lay the groundwork for the future arrangement between all stakeholders in Central African Republic. The landlocked country has been suffering from a drawn-out conflict since a coup in 2013. Much of the fighting in recent years has been between Muslim-majority Seleka and Christian Anti-Balaka militias. The government has sent a delegation of senior ministers to Khartoum, led by the president's chief of staff, Firmin Ngrebada. Delegates from 14 armed militias are attending, as are religious leaders, human rights advocates and other civil society figures.
