Originally Posted by CREER

Totally agree with Mika, keep your ear to the ground, that doesn't mean the internet or BBC news, but talking to people locally, listening to local radio, reading the front pages of newspapers.

I entered Guinea just prior to Conte's strikes & realised something was up as soon as I entered, everyone was listening to the radio I wondered about doubling back & returning to Guinea Bissau but kept going. I finally managed to get over the Senegalese border a week later with some of the last fuel available.

I was in Cote d'Ivoire for almost two months during the crisis of 2010/2011, again, we had text messaging & internet turned off intermittently by Gbagbo's government. The borders kept closing. My BIGGEST worry was actually family & friends who were SO insistent that I should leave but weren't on the ground to see the situation. Unfortunately international propaganda had hit their TV screens & I got the repercussions of the nonsense that was being said. I had a 'back route' out into Ghana if it did get nasty for me, I later discovered Ghana would have treated me as a refugee (this is an international convention of some sort) if I had illegally gone over the border without stamps & there is nothing to worry about!

Burundi, started getting nasty before the last elections, the night I arrived in Bujumbura there were grenades being thrown 200m down the street. Friends tell me it's got a lot worse and Bujumbura and certain regions are off-limits.

There have been a few other occasions, once when I was a teenager & therefore with my father which did get threatening. However, as a single female I was fine on each occasion and well looked after, people were pleading with me to stay ... it was a sad day with a lot of tears when I finally did leave.

Go for it & enjoy it ...