In the context of the Development Partner Consultation for CAR in June 2007, the government prepared a very informative two-page document on the transport infrastructure in CAR.

In short, the transport infrastructure is a poor as one can find it in Africa. Key facts below:

• CAR’s territory is about 623,000 square kilometers, or roughly the size of France
• The nearest seaport Douala in Cameroon is about 1,500 km from Bangui
• Of the 5,376 km national roads (major roads), only 700 km are surfaced. The rest are unpaved.
• CAR has 5,000 km of rivers but only 15 ferries with a motor
• In the 1970s, 600,000 tonnes of freight were transported on the the Oubangui river per year. Now it is only 60,000 tonnes per year.
• The Bangui airport is 40 years old and its runway was last renovated 20 years ago.

Click here to download the brief or go to the next page to read it right here Continue Reading »

WFP brought back pictures from the road to Sam Ouandja, where more than 2,700 refugees need assistance.

After weeks of rain, the main road to Sam Ouandja is almost completely impassable. The WFP truck convoy took almost 14 days to arrive in Sam Ouandja from Bangui.

Look at the photo gallery after the break to see the trucks stuck in the mud. Continue Reading »

The extreme north east of CAR is only accessible on poorly maintained dirt roads. With the rainy season about to start, it may soon become impossible to access the region by car or truck. Humanitarian agencies are pre-stocking supplies and vehicles now. Once the rain starts pouring down, new aid can only be delivered by plane.

The images show the main road to Birao, just before Ouanda-Djalle. During a recent inter-agency mission, the team had been stuck at this ‘trouble spot’ for almost 3 hours before the jeeps were back on track.

Alertnet runs a story on the challenge of delivering aid within the Central African Republic. All but a few roads are in disrepair, the most important road to Cameroon lacks hundreds of kilometers of tarmac and the rainy season is about to set in. Most bridges have been destroyed in fighting between rebels and government troops. The video below gives some idea how difficult it is to get through with jeeps, let alone with trucks.