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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Ivory Coast
Index
Construction on the Abidjan-Niger Railroad (Régie du
Chemin de
Fer Abidjan-Niger--RAN) began in 1905 and continued
through 1954.
The single, one-meter-gauge track extended northward from
Abidjan
through Ferkessédougou into Burkina Faso and terminated at
Ouagadougou. Its total length, including the portion in
Burkina
Faso, was 1,180 kilometers. Through the early post-World
War II
period, the RAN contributed significantly to the
development of
agriculture and forestry in the southeast and central
regions of
the country. Following the opening of the Abidjan port in
1950 and
the upgrading and expansion of the road network, the RAN
became
primarily a long-distance hauler. Except for points
located
directly on the rail route and for bulk transport, rail
transport
was no longer important to the south and to the center of
the
country. Nevertheless, the RAN was still considered
crucial to
economic development in the north; accordingly, new
industries were
situated along the rail line.
The RAN was also important to the landlocked countries
to the
north. At one time, it carried 90 percent of Burkina
Faso's foreign
trade and half of the 50 percent of Mali's foreign trade
that
passed (via Bobo Dioulasso in Burkina Faso) through the
seaport of
Abidjan.
In the 1980s, economic recession in Côte d'Ivoire and
Burkina
Faso, and political instability in the latter, confronted
the RAN
with financial and administrative problems, deteriorating
equipment, and debt. These problems were caused in part
because
Burkina Faso did not pay its bills for five years,
accumulating
arrears amounting to CFA F17 billion. For political and
economic
reasons, the two countries agreed to liquidate the RAN and
divide
its assets, estimated in 1987 to be CFA F78 billion in
rolling
stock, railroad stations, buildings, and land.
Côte d'Ivoire had planned to construct a 350-kilometer
railroad
to link the port city of San-Pédro with iron ore deposits
near
Bongolo in the west-central region of the country. But
because
prices in the 1980s for iron ore were low, the government
scrapped
plans to exploit the deposits and build the railroad,
which would
have cost an estimated CFA F80 billion in 1986.
Data as of November 1988
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