Hundreds of Burkinabè traders demonstrated Monday in Ouagadougou to demand the reopening of all the markets, which were closed at the end of March to combat the spread of the coronavirus, an AFP journalist noted.
“We want the markets to reopen so we can resume our activities and provide for our needs,” said Soumaila Tiendrebeogo, a clothes trader at the Nabi-Yaar market in Ouagadougou’s working-class neighbourhood.
The epidemic, which has caused 42 deaths out of 623 confirmed cases in this West African country, according to the latest official report on Sunday, had led to the closure of some 40 markets in the capital of 3 million inhabitants on 25 March, two weeks after the outbreak of the disease.
On 20 April, the authorities reopened the large market in Ouagadougou and then the one in Bobo-Dioulasso, the country’s second largest city, raising high hopes among traders in the other markets that remained closed.
Gathered around the Sankaryaré and Nabi-Yaar markets, located in two working-class neighbourhoods of the capital, the demonstrators, mostly young people and women, set up a few roadblocks on tracks using stones, used tyres and tree trunks, preventing any traffic. These roadblocks were then dismantled by the police, without a hitch.
source: africanews.com
No comments:
Post a Comment