Travel Guide Tabou

A former colonial trading post where Portuguese, French, Spanish and English ships came to unload junk and take on board agricultural products and Krou dockers (the famous crew men), Tabou had representatives of all the major shipping companies. In 1912, a wharf was built and, until 1930, the small trading post enjoyed a prosperous period due to its intense activity. The Second World War put a stop to this effervescence, as French ships no longer dared to dock in Tabou for fear of German submarines. The opening of the port of San Pedro in the early 1970s definitively confirmed the decline of the former flourishing trading post, attracting to it all the foreign ships and trading houses (CFAO, CFCI, SCOA...) previously established in Tabou. Today, the city of Djibetoa is a peaceful coastal town and lives mainly from direct and indirect activities related to the ocean, agriculture and trade (fishing, cash crops such as oil palm, coffee and cocoa, wood and food crops) Cautionary note. Tabou is located 20 km from Liberia, but the border has been closed since 2002 due to high levels of insecurity, with paramilitaries regularly attacking the gendarmerie and army forces positioned at this strategic point before retreating into the thick forest. In March 2020, one gendarme was killed, followed by two others in January.