The Port of Bissau, also known as Porto Pidjiguiti, is the chief port of

Guinea-Bissau Guinea-Bissau ( ; pt, Guiné-Bissau; ff, italic=no, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫 𞤄𞤭𞤧𞤢𞥄𞤱𞤮, Gine-Bisaawo, script=Adlm; Mandinka: ''Gine-Bisawo''), officially the Republic of Guinea-Bissau ( pt, República da Guiné-Bissau, links=no ), ...

. Located on

Geba River The Geba is a river of West Africa that rises in the northernmost area of Guinea in the Fouta Djallon highlands, passes through southern Senegal, and reaches the Atlantic Ocean in Guinea-Bissau. It is about in total length. In Senegal, the r ...

, it serves the capital of Bissau. It has two piers and a jetty. The port's Pidjiguiti docks were the site of the

Pidjiguiti massacre The Pidjiguiti massacre (also spelled Pijiguiti) was an incident that took place on 3 August 1959 at the Port of Bissau's Pijiguiti docks in Bissau, Portuguese Guinea. Dock workers went on strike, seeking higher pay, but a manager called the ...

on 3 August 1959. A

light Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 te ...

on Bissau Cathedral is maintained by the harbourmaster.

Description

The port is situated on Geba River. Its channel has a depth of to and cargo pier of to . It has crane facilities for up to 50 tonnes. The cargo port has two piers, a southwest pier and, a newer one on the northeast. The newer "T" shaped long pier was built in 1993. The jetty connecting it is , and provides access to the shore. Thirty years before 2013, the channel was dredged to provide a draft of . However, the present draft is said to be . Bissau Cathedral tower houses a light which guides ships through the

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

to the Port of Bissau. The light is maintained by the Capitania dos Portos, Serviços de Marinha.

History

The port has major significance to the history and economic development of the nation. Given the importance of the port to the national economy, and the previously poor facilities of the port, a great deal of investment occurred in the 2010s. This facilitated the growth of the

mining industry Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

in the country, with the exportation of

bauxite Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO ...

. Plans to develop the port to support the shipping of bauxite go back to at least 1983, when a $47.4 million project was announced. The port's Pidjiguiti docks were the site of the

, which took place on 3 August 1959, when police shot the dockworkers, killing 50 and wounding over 100 people. The

stevedore A stevedore (), also called a longshoreman, a docker or a dockworker, is a waterfront manual laborer who is involved in loading and unloading ships, trucks, trains or airplanes. After the shipping container revolution of the 1960s, the number ...

s were on their first strike, organized by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (''Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde'', PAIGC), marking the beginning of strong resistance against the Portuguese colonial authority. A large, black, fist monument commemorates the massacre. Several older buildings remain around the port area, including the 18th century military barracks and old prison.

Port operation

The Bissau port was designed to handle 5,000 containers a year, yet it serves nearly five times as many today. A consequence of its overstretched capacity is the high costs related to its operation. Source: World Bank ; African Development Bank study on the transport sector in Guinea-Bissau

References

External links

*{{commons category-inline, Port of Bissau Bissau Ports and harbours in Africa Ports and harbours of the Atlantic Ocean Transport in Guinea-Bissau