New plans for cross-border traffic to resume by 30 June

Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire are to set up new surveillance systems on their common border and intensify patrols by their armies, French and West African peacekeepers to enable cross-border road and railway traffic, which was shutdown eight months ago, to resume by 30 June.

The border was closed when Cote d'Ivoire's army mutinied on September 19 last year. The crisis left rebel forces in control of the north, blocking the road and railway to the port of Abidjan, which handled most of landlocked Burkina Faso's external trade.

On Thursday, Ivorian and Burkinabe defense and security chiefs, who met for two days in the Burkina capital, Ouagadougou endorsed recommendations aimed at "setting up and progressively consolidating preventive, surveillance and alert systems at their common borders," a communqiue said.

But their two governments still have to approve the recommendations before implementation can start. Burkina Faso will send a delegation to Abidjan in two weeks time for a follow-up meeting.

"The recommendations that you have made, if approved by the authorities need to be implemented without delay to make it possible for economic and commercial activities to resume between the two countries," Colonel Aly Traore, the Burkina joint chief of staff said. "It is only at that time that we can say mission accompli."

The main axes to be secured include Gaoua, in southwest Burkina through Bouna in eastern Cote d'Ivoire; and Banfora in Burkina Faso through Ouangolodougou in northern Cote d'Ivoire. Vehicles will initially move in convoys through these axes, but the situation will be reviewed periodically.

"A communication network will be put in place between the command center which will be managing the security system in Cote d'Ivoire and the one in Burkina Faso," Colonel Yao Yao Jules, spokesman for the Ivorian delegation said. "The economic situation demands that we secure the border speedily." Similar talks, he added, would be held with Guinea and Mali.

The reopening of the trade route to Burkina Faso should also help the neighbouring landlocked countries of Mali and Niger which traditionally rely on Abidjan to handle much of their external trade. All three countries are anxious to clear tens of thousands of tonnes of goods that have remained stuck in the port for the past eight months.