Suriname, Fr. Guiana Resume Mail Delivery

Postal service between Suriname and neighboring French Guiana will resume nearly 10 years after the Surinamese bush war that interrupted mail deliveries, a postal official said Tuesday. The Surinamese postal company, Surpost, signed a contract with the postal service in the neighboring French department on Friday to resume service, said Judith May, a Surpost official. Fighting during the South American country’s 1986-92 bush war made the road between Suriname’s capital of Paramaribo and French Guiana dangerous. Mail service was stopped in the mid-1980s when the road became unsafe, May said. As a result of the fighting between the military and the Jungle Commando rebel group, thousands of Surinamese fled across the border into French Guiana and many still live there. Market studies showed that a daily stream of parcels and letters already makes the trip on buses and taxis. ‘We will now start to promote our service as an alternative,’ May said. Transportation by land can be particularly difficult in Suriname, where many roads are poor and the country’s 440,000 people are concentrated largely near Paramaribo and along the coast. The first delivery is to be made on Oct. 9, World Postal Day, officials said. At first, the mail will be delivered once a week, but likely the shipments will soon become more frequent, May said.