Gabon, Burundi ban Chinese products

  1. Posted on Sunday 21 September 2008 - 07:00
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    Kent Mensah, AfricaNews editor in Accra, Ghana Photo: Jan Bierkens
    Gabon and Burundi have banned the sale of all Chinese milk products from the market after a contamination of such diaries killed four children in China. The Central African countries served the notice to the public on Saturday. The powder was contaminated with melamine, used for making plastics.
    Burundi. In cooperation with Caritas International, the children in this school get one meal a day. Photo: Jan Bierkens
    The two countries join a number of states in Asia and Africa which have declared a health alert over the tainted Chinese milk powder that has made thousands of Chinese children ill, Reuters news agency said.

    Gabon's Trade and Industrial Development Minister Paul Biyoghe Mba prohibited the sale and import of milk powder for babies, including that produced by two Chinese companies, Guangdong Yashili Group Co Ltd and Qingdao Suncare Nutritional Technology Co Ltd, among others.

    Traders who fail to comply with the directive, Mba said, would be dealt with severely.
    Gabonese President Omar Bongo, Africa's longest serving ruler, has maintained more than three decades of cordial ties with China, which receives some oil from Gabon.

    Chinese companies are engaged in major mining and infrastructure projects in Gabon, part of Beijing's aggressive investment drive to lock up energy and raw materials supplies from the African continent.

    The ban on Chinese powdered milk products came as a shock to some Gabonese mothers. "It's difficult to change milk suddenly because I've been buying Chinese milk powder for several months due to its generally reasonable price," said 28-year-old mother of three Melanie Obone in Libreville's Mont Bouet market.

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