Road Network to Port San Pedro Reopened

Roads leading to Ivory Coast's major cocoa port of San Pedro have reopened after a week-long closure caused by heavy rains, the prime minister's office said on Wednesday.

 

San Pedro, the West African country's second largest port, is located in the southwest near the main cocoa growing regions and most of the cocoa beans are exported from it.

 

Exporters said last week that the roads and bridges that connect Grabo, Para, Tabou, Grand Bereby in the far southwest to San Pedro had all been cut, as was a bridge linking the port to the cocoa centres of Soubre, Daloa and Duekoue.

 

Just 7,000 tonnes of beans arrived in San Pedro last week, the lowest level this season, due to the city's being virtually cut off.

 

"Work on an emergency detour to bypass the broken "Baba" bridge allowed traffic to resume on the San Pedro-Tabou axis," a statement from the prime minister's office said. "The San Pedro-Soubre road, which was totally cut, is again open."

 

Heavy rains have caused havoc across Ivory Coast in recent weeks, flooding roads, destroying homes and causing 15 deaths this month, the government said on Wednesday.


(Reporting by Joe Bavier. Editing by Jane Merriman)