The recently completed refurbishment of a 9-mile stretch of road funded by Oil of DRCongo, a Fleurette Group subsidiary, has significantly reduced the time it takes to transport goods and people between the town of Kasenyi and the city of Bunia and is enhancing the regional economy in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to the company.

The road, which is 36 miles in total, is the main artery connecting Kasenyi and other nearby and isolated Lake Albert coastal communities to the commercial center of Bunia in eastern Province Orientale.

Years of conflict in the region and neglect have left much of the road, which traverses mountainous terrain and is regularly impassable during the rainy season, in a state of disrepair. Increased transportation costs and the unpredictability of moving goods and services have suppressed livelihood activities and stifled economic development and investment throughout the area, according to Oil of DRCongo.

"Repairing this section of road alone has cut the previously three hour, or often more, difficult trip from Kasenyi to Bunia to about an hour and a half," said Oil of DRCongo CEO Giuseppe Ciccarelli. "This has had an immediate positive and widespread impact on social and economic recovery in and around Kasenyi. It is now much easier for the general population to travel, for businessmen and women to move and sell merchandise and for farmers and fishermen to deliver what they grow and catch to market while still fresh and for greater profits."