• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Tuesday 19 October 2004

CONGO: Rebels cut train service to coast

BRAZZAVILLE, 19 Oct 2004 (IRIN) - Rail service stopped on Monday between the Republic of the Congo's main port of Pointe-Noire and its capital, Brazzaville, following numerous attacks on trains along the 250-km stretch of rail line in the Pool region.

"Whenever trains cross the Pool they are attacked," Jacky Trimardeau, the director for the railway company, Chemin de Fer Congo Océan, said on Tuesday at a Brazzaville news conference.

"Under these conditions it is difficult to keep operating," he added.

Trimardeau said the rebel group known as Conseil National de la Résistance was perpetrating the attacks as the Ninjas.

"We have decided to stop service until a new arrangement has been negotiated with the rebel chief," he said, referring to Frédéric Bitsangou, alias Pastor Ntumi.

However, Bitsangou denied his fighters were involved and has called for an independent inquiry. A precarious ceasefire between the government and the Ninjas has been in place since December 1999.

In a recent attack between Thursday and Friday evenings, a passenger train was systematically pillaged, railway officials said. On the previous Sunday, a goods train was attacked.

Trimardeau said the recent attacks, which have cost the rail company around 600 millions francs CFA (US $10,000), had made it difficult for the company to pay its 2,207 employees their salaries.

A combined security force of gendarmes and Ninja militiamen had escorted trains, but on 9 October the government decided to replace them with army troops.

Bitsangou said the government took the unilateral decision as a pretext. He blames the attacks on armed groups who were being manipulated by politicians in Brazzaville.

[ENDS]

This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004