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The initial mission was to form
checkpoints around a small village called Dibobly, about 40km eastwards
along the main route from Duekoue. The village was situated on the edge
of the Sassandra river (here forming a wide lake). The bridge that
spanned the river was a vital landmark that had to be protected from
potential attacks - hence the checkpoints. |
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The first checkpoint, along
the main route. Every vehicle that passed from west to east had to be
stopped and the driver interrogated on where he/she were going, what
they were carrying (the big trucks carried mostly cocoa beans) and where
were they coming from. |
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The VAB armoured personnel
carrier with its 7.62mm machine gun was used to back up and support the
sentry standing at the barrier. |
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Another angle of the VAB. Later
on we were forced to build sandbag protection walls around the position
as the rebels were armed with RPG-7 armour-defeating rockets. |
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Every day roughly 800 to 1000
refugees left the region to migrate to the safer areas further south and
to the east. The minibuses were packed with at least 25 passengers each,
plus their meagre belongings. Our job was to question them and their
driver on whether they could provide any useful information on rebel
movements or activities in the area. |
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A local female villager
passes the checkpoint position. |
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More villagers. The photo shows
quite well how things are carried around - on the heads. Even the
females were able to port amazingly heavy baskets filled with fruits or
wood - in addition to a baby in a sling tied around the waist - for
kilometres on end. Children also worked hard from a very early age, for
the benefit of the community. |
