REFLEXIVE PEACE PRACTICE (RPP) TAFAKARI

This week's rating moves to "Very Critical" on the strength of a single mass-casualty disaster: on 18 August, part of the Zamboye artisanal gold mine near Baboua (Nana-Mambéré prefecture) collapsed, killing at least 34 to 49 people by the first official Central African count and, according to local officials and Cameroonian authorities across the border, possibly as many as 100 or more, with search operations still ongoing at week's end. That single event, on its own, would be enough to justify the lowest rating on the scale; it was compounded by a diplomatic scandal (the French ambassador's alleged conduct, drawing a CAR presidential response on 19 August), a reported military setback for Wagner forces against an Anti-Balaka commander in the same prefecture, and continuing road-traffic deaths in Bangui. No single armed clash drove this week's severity; the toll is dominated by industrial and infrastructural failure rather than combat, but the scale of loss of life is the highest recorded in any report in this series.