Paris-to-Dakar rally African section begins

Press, 30 December 1988, Page 20

Paris-to-Dakar rally African section begins

NZPA-Reuter Tunis Philippe Auribault, of France, on a Yamaha 125, led a field of 396 motorbikes and cars out of Tunis yesterday at the start of the 9700 km African section of the Pari-Tunis-Dakar rally. The vehicles arrived at the port of La Goulette just north of Tunis at dawn after a one-day passage by boat from Barcelona, the last stop on the European section of the rally. Thousands of Tunisians packed November 7 Square in the city centre to see the first of the 155 bikes set off on a relatively leisurely drive to the south-western town of Tozeur, the main oasis in the Tunisian Sahara. The drive to Tozeur, which goes through populated areas, is not one of the timed sections so the drivers are required to observe normal speed limits. The first of the competitive stages starts today in the village of Jimma, 100 km east of the city of Gabes, and runs 308 km to Bourj Bourguiba in the part of Tunisia which juts

south between Libya and Algeria. This section of the course runs through sparsely populated desert where there is little risk of villagers being injured. The vehicles then drive through Libya, Niger, Mali and Guinea to arrive in the Senegalese capital on January 13. The rally has a record of high casualties and the organisers say they have reinforced safety provisions. This year they are deploying an emergency evacuation plane, two helicopters and 15 four-wheel-drive ambulances with a medical staff of 33. The first 10 Paris-Dakar rallies passed through Algeria. The Tunisian-Libyan route is an innovation introduced because this year the Algerian authorities were slow in answering a request for permission to cross their territory. The request went in October, when the Government was preoccupied with riots in Algiers and other cities.