Monday, January 22, 2007
Mario en Bas continued
Hi Hans
Everything is still the same in Bangui. The bars next to St. Charles are still playing music the whole night. There is only slightly more military presence on the streets now. Police and military seem to prefer to stop taxis now. Whether this has got to do much with security I tend to doubt.
Adialo from Minair offered me to fly the Baron. Their Cessna 404 is operational as well now. It looks like their business is picking up. That is not a big surprise though, since the South African Caravan has not come back yet and ASF is not here any more either. I have heard nothing new of the ASF Baron.
The only other planes flying now are the King Air and of course the Catholic C-206.The C-206 which is registered in the Congo is still here, but seems to have some technical problems at the moment. The World Food Program is still operatingtheir Caravan. Centrafricair is supposed to be still operational although I have not seen the Saab 340 yet. Air Toumai, Cameroon Airlines and Air France are still the regular visitors. The government now owns a Hercules but I have only seen it parked on the military apron.
The situation in the northern part of the country is still fragile. There are still rebels in the area and according to local newspapers there are still some clashes between them and government troops. As always the local population has to pay the price. There are still thousands in the bush living on what they can find there because their villages have been destroyed. It is bizarre to see life going its usual way in Bangui and only a few hundred kilometres away people live in the bush.
Regards,
Mario
Everything is still the same in Bangui. The bars next to St. Charles are still playing music the whole night. There is only slightly more military presence on the streets now. Police and military seem to prefer to stop taxis now. Whether this has got to do much with security I tend to doubt.
Adialo from Minair offered me to fly the Baron. Their Cessna 404 is operational as well now. It looks like their business is picking up. That is not a big surprise though, since the South African Caravan has not come back yet and ASF is not here any more either. I have heard nothing new of the ASF Baron.
The only other planes flying now are the King Air and of course the Catholic C-206.The C-206 which is registered in the Congo is still here, but seems to have some technical problems at the moment. The World Food Program is still operatingtheir Caravan. Centrafricair is supposed to be still operational although I have not seen the Saab 340 yet. Air Toumai, Cameroon Airlines and Air France are still the regular visitors. The government now owns a Hercules but I have only seen it parked on the military apron.
The situation in the northern part of the country is still fragile. There are still rebels in the area and according to local newspapers there are still some clashes between them and government troops. As always the local population has to pay the price. There are still thousands in the bush living on what they can find there because their villages have been destroyed. It is bizarre to see life going its usual way in Bangui and only a few hundred kilometres away people live in the bush.
Regards,
Mario
