Bayanga is a town and sub-prefecture of

Sangha-Mbaéré Sangha-Mbaéré is one of the 16 prefectures of the Central African Republic. Its capital is Nola Nola is a town and a municipality in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania, southern Italy. It lies on the plain between Mount Vesuvius an ...

in the

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

. It is one of the few tourist destinations in the country. Bayanga is on the left bank of the

Sangha River The Sangha River, a tributary of the Congo River, is located in Central Africa. Geography The Sangha River is formed at the confluence of the Mambéré River and the Kadéï River at Nola in the western Central African Republic. () The Sangha fl ...

, about 102 km south of the capital of Nola Prefecture, and 520 km west of Bangui. It is located in the tropical rainforest zone in the Dzanga-Sangha Dense Forest Special Reserve and 10 km from the

Dzanga-Ndoki National Park The Dzanga-Ndoki National Park is located in the southwestern extremity of the Central African Republic. Established in 1990, the national park is . The national park is split into two non-continuous sectors, the northern Dzanga sector (or Dzanga ...

. The town itself had a population of around 4,000 people in 2003, while the entire sub-prefecture of the same name was home to around 9,800 people. The sub-prefecture has one commune: Yobe-Sangha.

History

Bayanga was originally a Sangha-Sangha fishing village home to around 200 people, in the middle of the tropical rainforest populated by the Baka people, sometimes referred to by outsiders as "pygmies" due to their short stature. In the 1970s, a sawmill was constructed and over the next decade, Bayanga grew into somewhat of a boomtown with the arrival of the logging industry. This also saw the arrival of Lebanese shopkeepers, Western missionaries, discotheques and even loan sharks. In 1988, the Central African Government and WWF committed to the establishment and management of a protected area system in the region. This is the beginning of the Dzanga-Sangha Project (PDS). This will lead in 1990 to the creation of the Dzanga-Ndoki National Park (1150 km²) and the Dzanga-Sangha Dense Forest Special Reserve (3200 km²) for multiple use. With the creation of the Dzanga-Sangha Protected Area System (APDS) and the construction of a hotel in 1996, the foundations for the development of ecotourism activities capable of attracting an international clientele should be brought together. In 2004, the sawmill employed around 400 people, many of them migrants from other parts of the country. Meanwhile, the reserve employed around 200 people.

Civil war

On 10 March 2014 Bayanga subprefecture was captured by

Anti-balaka The Anti-balaka is an alliance of militia groups based in the Central African Republic in the early 21st century said to be composed primarily of Christians. However, some church leaders have contested the claimed exclusively Christian character ...

militias following Seleka withdrawal. Many people, particularly migrants who worked in and around the logging industry, fled. The town was recaptured by government forces in late May.

References

{{Sub-prefectures of the Central African Republic Sub-prefectures of the Central African Republic Populated places in Sangha-Mbaéré Populated places in the Central African Republic