Guinea-Bissau Brought To Standstill By Transport Strike

Bissau, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Oct, 2018 ) :The small West African state of Guinea-Bissau was paralysed on Tuesday after the owners of trucks, buses and taxis went on strike over police bribery and poor roads.

In Bissau, the capital, the normally bustling streets were virtually empty, and only private cars could be seen.

Private schools, which depend on minibuses and taxis to drop off and pick up children, told students to stay at home, and many civil servants did not go to work.

"The movement is 90-percent successful. The entire country has been shut down," said Mamadu Conte, president of a nationwide association of transporters.

Guinea-Bissau, a former Portuguese colony, ranks among the poorest countries in the world, according to the UN's development index.

It has just 4,400 kilometres of roads, of which only 10 percent (453 km) are paved. Non-paved roads are notoriously slow and dangerous, and prone to being washed out during the rainy season.