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GV UEAC Building, N'djamena
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GV & CU Chad and Cameroun delegates in discussion (5 shots)
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GV Site of proposed bridge (2 shots)
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Initials BB/1632 RS/AH/BB/1645



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: A commission of delegates from Cameroun and Chad has resumed discussion of the project for a bridge over the Chari river.

Fording across the river is one of the worst obstacles to lorries carrying grain for drought relief from the ports of Cameroun and Nigeria to the starving people in the desert. At present, of 7,000 tons of food promised each month, only four thousand are getting through. Sandbanks are making the crossing increasingly difficult, and the efforts of international relief organisations to deliver the grain has been further frustrated by a controversy over transportation charges.

Last week, however, a joint Chad-Cameroun commission re-opened discussions on the subject of fees for transport thorough the difficult North Cameroun mountains. The delegates, meeting in N'djamena, Chad's capital, are also considering the project to build the bridge over the Chari, a plan originally put forward with offers of technical help from The People's Republic of China in January of this year.

SYNOPSIS: In N'djamena, capital of Chad, delegates from two countries have resumed discussions on the facilities for lorries bringing food to relieve the effects of drought. Ministers from the Governments of Chad and Cameroun have been trying to solve the problems of transportation fees, one of the major obstacles to regular delivery of the grain to the starving people of the north. But the Ministers have agreed to regularise the cost of driving the trucks from the ports and through the mountain tacks of Cameroun, and prevent the rivalries which have delayed over a third of the consignments. But an even more crucial point on the route is the shallow river where the lorries ford across one by one into Chad.

But it is hoped that he talks will revive the project for a bridge, and help in the race against time to speed the available food to its destination.