CAR: Bozize 'wanted cut' of US road cash

A tussle over a road gave a glimpse of the inner workings of the Central African Republic government with a leaked US cable suggesting that President Francois Bozize had sought to personally profit from money set aside for the project. The $2.75 million USAid-funded project would have been an integral part of an east-west road that directly responded to the Central African government’s own poverty reduction strategy paper. But according to new WikiLeaks cables, a frenzy of meetings with Mr Bozize and his cronies ahead of the scheduled 26 October 2009 launch of the road works left the US ambassador with the impression that the President was 'personally interested in the monetary benefits that international development money brings'.