These heavy goods vehicles, coming from the port of Cotonou, transport equipment intended for the construction site of an oil pipeline between the two countries. They have been stuck for two months because the company that ordered the goods, China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering (CPP), failed to pay customs duties. The CPP has entrusted this mission to a subcontractor who has not paid anything for the time being.
For stranded carriers, this is unheard of. A formality that usually takes three days has dragged on for two months. The truckers are therefore asking for compensation. They claim 5,000 CFA francs per week of immobilization and more than 100,000 francs for travel to the site, which is 70 kilometers from Gaya.
” It is very difficult for carriers »
” It’s very difficult for the carriers who are always there waiting. Normally, they should have already made at least six trips during these two months. They are suffering, they have been forced to take credits from the merchants’ side to eat “, explains Sambo Boureima, the secretary general of the Gaya section of the union of transporters of Niger.
Today only 27 trucks were able to start unloading their cargo. About fifty still have to join the site. A colossal flow that this border town will have to absorb, when it is already saturated by the ordinary traffic of heavy goods vehicles.
One “ anarchic parking lot »
“ For the crossing of the city, they proceed to anarchic parking along the tarmactestifies Moukaila Boureima, the mayor of Gaya. In the city, we have a lot of motorcycle taxis and carts and all this creates congestion on the road and leads to accidents which sometimes are even fatal. »
To resolve the situation, the CPP must send an agent from Niamey this Friday. Contacted by RFI, the company did not respond to our request.
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