In some rural parts of the West African nation of Guinea, there are hardly any roads and getting from one place to another can be quite a challenge. In the mountainous villages of Sanama and Tirikouré, the situation is even more complicated. To get over the mountain to the hospital or market in the neighbouring town, residents have to climb up a ladder made of vines.

Alpha Ousmane Bah is a journalist for the online news service Africaguinee.com, who recently travelled to the remote villages of Sanama (population: 1,500) and Tirikouré (population: 1,000). He told the FRANCE 24 Observers team about how difficult life is for these villagers.

The villages of Sanama and Tirikouré are separated from the town of Lélouma by a mountain range several kilometres long. As the crow flies, these villages are less than 10 kilometres from the centre of Lélouma, but people have to take a 130-kilometre detour to get there by road. Villagers travel this long distance by motorcycle, to go to the market and sell produce grown in the valley like fonio, rice and cassava. The only way to get to the town, its market, its hospitals and its government buildings quickly is to cut across the mountain on foot, a journey which involves climbing up a massive vine ladder near Sanama. The only way to get to the town, its market, its hospitals and its government buildings quickly is to cut across the mountain on foot, a journey which involves climbing up a massive vine ladder near Sanama.

On every Saturday, market day in Lélouma, women from Sanama and Tirikouré climb the ladder balancing their wares on their heads. They leave early in the morning and climb back down the ladder around 7pm. It's an extremely difficult journey. The mountain's peak is 300 metres high, and even the lower parts are at about 120 metres. The lack of a good road between the villages and the town causes all kinds of suffering. As there are no secondary schools in these villages, parents there have to find host families in Lélouma for their kids so they can attend school. It causes lot of suffering. The government needs to build a modern bridge to open up these villages.