SITARAIL: And 3 for the “Fast Restoration”

• To cultivate solidarity and living together
• A “very beneficial” initiative according to beneficiaries
• While waiting for a relaunch of the Ouaga-Abidjan line

While the months of Muslim fasting and Christian Lent are in full swing, the opportunity is ideal for some to express their solidarity with others. This is also a prophetic recommendation, according to the Holy Scriptures. The International African Rail Transport Company (SITARAIL) does not intend to remain on the sidelines of this solidarity. Thursday March 27, 2024, it offered meal kits for the breaking of the fast of traders near its Ouagadougou station. This was the third edition of “Restau du Fast”, an event organized each year by SITARAIL on the occasion of fasting. For this year, 500 meal kits were made available to beneficiaries.

For this third edition, it was a friendly afternoon where we could count on the presence of several hundred people, Christians and Muslims, who took leave of their stalls to share this moment desired by the management of the Society.

For the SITARAIL representative in Burkina, Sibnoaga Alexis Ouédraogo, this gesture pursues the objective of cultivating solidarity and living together, particularly between the Company and the railway community. “The railway is an activity that brings people together. Many people gravitate around our stations and we live together every day. In accordance with what the authorities have requested, the Burkinabè must cultivate living together. And it is activities of this kind which make it possible to recall the need to live together and to be united on certain occasions such as the months of Lent,” indicated Alexis Ouédraogo.

The coordinator of residents near the station, Daouda Ilboudo, considered SITARAIL’s initiative “very beneficial”. For him, the credit goes first and foremost to the Company’s representative in Burkina. “We are grateful to him, especially since upon his installation, he opened his doors to local associations. Every time we ask him, he is there and we discuss the development of the railway at length,” confided Mr. Ilboudo. Maïmouna Ouédraogo, a resident of the station, was also delighted with SITARAIL’s gesture. “For three years we have been communing around a meal every month of fasting. It’s proof of good living together,” she convinces herself.

According to the SITARAIL representative in Burkina, “Restau du Fast” is an event set to grow. “We will work to perpetuate this activity to which many local residents have joined,” declared Sibnoaga Alexis Ouédraogo.

Béranger Kabré (Collaborater)

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Patience for the relaunch of the Ouaga-Abidjan line,

The 3^e edition of Restau du Fast comes a few months after the SITARAIL passenger train, which remained on hold for a long time, was put back on track. Since this resumption, the train has limited its journey to the border with Ivory Coast while many traders harbor the hope of seeing the train, particularly that of transporting goods, whistle to Abidjan as in the past. “Restau du Fast” was an opportunity for the Company’s representative in Burkina to react to this situation: “We are aware that the passenger train is the main working tool for many traders and that they benefit from it their subsidies. But it must be said that we are faced with a reality which is that for the moment we cannot bring the train to Ivory Coast for reasons of decision of the Ivorian authority,” explained Sibnoaga Alexis Ouédraogo. And to launch this appeal to traders: “we therefore ask you to be patient and to support us in what we are already doing with the passenger train, that is to say the internal train and we hope that between now and then he will be able to once again carry out the Abidjan-Ouagadougou connection for the happiness of all.”

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