UNOCI brings relief to Tabou

The people of the seaside town of Tabou who have had enormous difficulties of movement recently can now breathe a sigh of relief after the United Nations Operation in Côte d'Ivoire finished repairing the urban road network.

The gesture is in keeping with the objective of restoring public infrastructures, the Deputy Coordinator of the United Nations in Tabou, Doudou Mulaba pointed out. "First of all the maintenance of the roads facilitates the patrols of national and UNOCI forces and is a way of supporting the local authorities," he explained.

In all, some 15 km of roads were graded by the engineering corps of UNOCI's Egyptian battalion. The local authorities have expressed satisfaction with what they see as an act of salvation. "We were at a loss as to how to go about rehabilitating the roads, given their advanced state of degradation and the huge amount of repairs it required," the First deputy Mayor confessed.

For his part, the Prefect of the division, Yacouba Doumbia said he was satisfied with the gesture which demonstrates the UN's good intentions for the population. "Road maintenance falls within the domain of the State but it is important that international partners give us assistance while we are waiting for the government programme of devolution of powers to regional and local authorities to be put in place after the long crisis the country has experienced. We would wish for more but what has been accomplished so far is already good," he concluded.