Ghislain Moussavou, Director General of Forests was arrested at his ministry's office by the Directorate-General for Research (DGR) on Tuesday, September 12, 2023. The latter is suspected of complicity in illegal exploitation, complicity in embezzlement of public funds, forgery and concussion, usurpation

The arrest of Ghislain Moussavou follows a complaint by the National Union of Water and Forest Professionals (Synapef) filed in May. He is accused of being part of a criminal network that allegedly set up a system of shell companies and parallel bank accounts in order to embezzle public money. A complaint concerns about 200 logging permits granted illegally, for an area of 3 million hectares and hundreds of millions of CFA francs. Ghislain Moussavou had already been arrested in May 2022 on suspicion of embezzlement