Lobaye

Course

The Lobaye River forms in the west of the country, in the prefecture of Nana-Mambéré and flows in a generally southeast direction through Mambéré-Kadéï and Lobaye to its junction with the Ubangi.

There is potential for hydroelectric development, particularly in the section between the mouth of the Mbaéré and the Loko-Safa falls.

The Lobaye is 538 kilometres (334 mi) long, with an average slope of 1.25 metres per kilometre (6.6 ft/mi).

It rises near Bouar at an elevation of about 1,040 metres (3,410 ft), and its upper course is called the Bali River as far as Baoro.

The upper part is at first torrential, but after some rapids at 78 kilometres (48 mi) from its source it flows into a wide U-shaped valley.

History

One of the first Europeans to explore the river was the Belgian Alphonse van Gèle, in November–December 1886.

On 25 July 1901 a mission led by the colonial administrator M. Dessirier de Paulwel, with 30 militia and 65 porters, left Bangui and crossed the Bonjo territory to reach Loko on the Lobay River on 1 September 1901.

The mission then went north to the Carnot post on the Sangha River, which was reached on 20 October 1901.

Dessirier de Paulwel concluded that the M'Bali River was not, as had been thought, the upper part of the Likouala-aux-Herbes River, a tributary of the lower Sangha, but rather was part of the Lobay River.