The strike movement started Friday morning by the air traffic controllers, which had paralyzed the traffic of several African airports, was suspended Saturday noon by the trade union which assured AFP that it had obtained guarantees on its claims.
“
We are suspending the strike for ten days.
This watchword is addressed to all unions
,” said Soungalo Cissé, Deputy Secretary General of the Union of Air Traffic Controllers Unions of Asecna (USYCAA) at the origin of the movement.
The Agency for Air Navigation Safety in Africa and Madagascar (Asecna) has 18 member states, mainly French-speaking African countries.
Soungalo Cissé assured that the USYCAA had obtained commitments concerning their demands, during negotiations with several governments and Asecna, but reserved the right to "
reactivate
" the notice in ten days if the promises were not kept.
The USYCAA had launched a 48-hour strike on Friday morning to demand, in particular, an improvement in their working conditions and better career plans.
Saturday afternoon, traffic gradually resumed at Abidjan airport, where no commercial flight had taken off or landed since Friday morning.
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"
We are going to resume our activity but we have to reschedule a lot of canceled flights
," said Yacouba Fofana, communication manager for Air Côte d'Ivoire.
Traffic was very disrupted in many airports, such as Abidjan, Ouagadougou, Bamako or Yaoundé.
According to USYCAA, the strike was "
assiduously followed
" in 17 countries, with 39 control towers "
emptied
".
In Dakar, where a third of the flights had been canceled on Friday and where soldiers were on duty, "
some companies preferred to cancel their flights as a precautionary measure on Saturday
", said an airport official under cover of the 'anonymity.
