2023-11-22 13:21:19
Despite the relaunch, as planned, of the passenger train on November 17, we learned, from local sources in the Larlé NP, that a small group of traders from the railway stations erected barricades on the railway line using tree trunks, during the night of Tuesday 21 to Wednesday 22 November 2023, thus preventing trains from running.
The rest after this ad
Consequences: trains loaded with foodstuffs and pharmaceutical products, bound for Ouagadougou, are blocked in Koudougou. Other trains, which should leave Ouagadougou, were unable to move.
In this particularly difficult context for our country, where the preservation of the country’s supply circuits is a vital necessity and for which our Authorities are making enormous and laudable efforts, we could ask ourselves the question of the real motivations of these demonstrators. Not in the interest of the Burkinabè in any case, when we know the volume of consumer products (hydrocarbons, foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, etc.) which are transported by trains (note that a single train is equivalent to 40 trucks ).
These traders set as a condition, the junction of the passenger train between Ouagadougou and Abidjan. An option for which the Ivorian authorities are not favorable for the moment, according to the Burkinabe Minister of Transport who also reassures that discussions are continuing between the States.
What can the SITARAIL company do in the face of a sovereign decision by a State? What is the interest of these traders of attiéké, banana, placali, compared to consumer products (hydrocarbons, food and pharmaceutical products) intended for the whole country? Why block consumables belonging to and intended for other Burkinabè?
Without doubt, this blockage, if it continues, will have a negative impact on the costs of certain consumer products, 1 million tonnes of which are transported annually by rail. In addition to the negative impact on our country’s supply, there are thousands of direct and indirect jobs in Burkina Faso which are threatened (technical unemployment, retrenchment, etc.) by this blockage, if it continues.
The Burkinabe authorities are being called upon to put an end to this deadlock which contributes to undermining the immense and laudable efforts they make on a daily basis for the supply and social well-being of our populations in this difficult context.
Joshua Bonkoungou
advertisement
#train #blockades #traders