CABIN crew on ailing pan-African airline Air Afrique decided after several hours of negotiations with the carrier’s management to suspend their strike, union sources said on Thursday evening. The decision by the airline’s 450 flight attendants ends ten days of industrial action which has seen all of Air Afrique’s aircraft grounded since October 23. The flight crews’ union representatives said they had “obtained a satisfactory response to their demands” at the talks with Air Afrique’s management, and had therefore ended the strike. “We have reached an agreement under which a workers’ committee and a follow-up and management committee are to be set up immediately to oversee the airline’s revenues and how they are used,” said cabin crew union representative Denis Attiba. Attiba said last week, in the middle of the strike, that Air Afrique’s woes were due to mismanagement and corruption, and charged that ordinary workers were making huge sacrifices for the airline “while the directors were lining their pockets.” On Thursday, a representative for the airline’s management, head of communication Mansour Diop, said that the two sides had agreed on “deadlines for paying backpay due to the cabin crew, with the obligation that these are up to date by the end of December.” Air Afrique, which faces a 510-million-euro (464-million-dollar) debt burden, is seen as overstaffed with a total of 4 200 workers, of whom 600 are flight crew. In August, Air Afrique’s 11 member states agreed on a restructuring package which should leave them with just 20% of Air Afrique’s shares and give Air France 35%, making the French company the principle shareholder. – AFP