VADS or Deputy Security Volunteers, these are young people who are almost everywhere in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso at intersections to guarantee the road safety of citizens. For several days, we have noticed tires being placed right next to them, which motivates us, on January 18, 2024, to understand why. Read !
According to Bienvenue Doé, VADS in Bobo, “isn’t what we all endure in the crossroads here easy? We notice a lot of incivility, many users, when we present our panos, act as if they don’t see. There are people, when you lift only they come to pass. Generally when they burn the VADS, it creates accidents at the center. The reason why we put the tires down at the stopping points is because there are some who leave the tarmac and come to pass where you are stopped. Often you have the impression that it is your foot that they want to crush and they do it without embarrassment. Some pretend to apologize. What are excuses worth if your foot breaks? So in order to preserve their lives, we also preserve ours. This is why we are taking all our precautions. At least they can’t come through the tires and hit us. We just ask people to preserve their lives, but we see that people don’t care about their lives. We ask people to be wiser, they just have to respect us, they just have to see the value of our work. It is for them that we are here, it is for the country. If everyone has to get on the tarmac and move around as they want, it’s not interesting. Those who move around poorly only have to take into account the lives of others. Some people always want to live, others love life. We ask users to be careful when driving.”
“The tires around us are to protect us. Despite that, we still want to ride on us. What is deplorable is dads, grandfathers who often do this,” adds Sory Ousmane, another VADS.
Barro, another VADS, says he often faces threats. “We ourselves, as VADS, protect ourselves first. There are certain users, when you hand out your stop sign, who come to hit it and pass or they threaten you with a really threatening look, to say to leave, they will pass. We are doing our best. In any activity there are advantages and disadvantages. We just ask to be disciplined in traffic,” he urges. According to Filber Kafando, “the users don’t care about us! Some exaggerate and look at us with a look of hatred, others say they didn’t see the stop sign, let’s not talk about it about us. This creates accidents when cornering. I ask the population to be vigilant, because we are helping them to reduce the risk of traffic accidents. Preserving your life and that of others is the best thing you can do on this earth.” Sarah Traore thinks the same thing and asks that the government review this situation because, “we are in danger, given the bad behavior of users”.
Stéphanie Pingueda YAMEOGO
Annaïsse PAKOTOGO/interns
