The construction of a dry port as one of the solutions to the congestion of the Port of Douala (PAD) was decided on Friday, at the end of a tripartite meeting between the Cameroonian customs administration and its counterparts in the Central African Republic (CAR) and Chad.
The meeting is held in a context marked by the occupation of an important part of the port area by 3,000 containers bound for CAR and Chad, and whose customs clearance formalities were completed several weeks ago. Dry ports will be built in Douala, within the port premises, in Edea (Littoral Region) and in the eastern town of Belabo, at the border with CAR. According to Cameroon’s General Directorate of Customs (DGD), some 3,000 containers are still marooned at the port of Douala, while 400 boats are grounded in the eastern town of Garoua-Boulai for security reasons.
These security concerns are on the Douala-Ndjamena corridor, with incursions by the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram in the far-northern region of Cameroon and in the Lake Chad area, as well as the Douala-Bangui corridor, with acts of violence perpetrated by CAR’s armed groups scouring the western part of the country bordering Cameroon.
As a result, several containers are piled up at the Port of Douala and other towns across the country, while transporters have chosen to go on strike as long as the security concerns are not tackled. At the end of the meeting, the governments of Cameroon, CAR and Chad promised to beef up security, which indicates that the activities could resume by the end of this week, according to participants
Source:AP
