By Will Ross BBC, Gbadolite, north-west Democratic Republic of Congo

It is all fairly quiet at the main intersection along the Boulevard Mobutu Sese Seko in Gbadolite.

This was the home town of the man who ruled what was then Zaire for 30 years and he squandered vast quantities from the state coffers building several vast palaces and creating a thriving town here.

But it is now five years since Mr Mobutu died and Gbadolite has gone into rapid decline.

The redundant traffic lights look on as the occasional bicycle drifts past and I have spotted at least one dead monkey being carried towards its final resting place - the cooking pot.

Quiet day?

What makes this junction especially bizarre is the fact that Mr Zama Ngbo works here coordinating the traffic.

Watch out for that pothole, monsieur

This might have been a valuable job back in the town's hey day, but Zama in his yellow helmet admits he is not exactly busy now.

"We don't have much work because there isn't enough traffic. There are now more bicycles than cars and trucks. But for me this is a good job because it's helping to develop our country. "

"I help different people especially those visiting from outside who don't know the traffic system. I help them by telling them to go this way or that way," he says.

Zama estimates that there are just 12 vehicles in Gbadolite town and as far as I could tell most of those were United Nations observers, driving up and down but with a mandate to do little else.

On your bike

The only accident Zama is ever likely to be in danger of witnessing is a possible crash between two UN vehicles observing each other at close range.

Heading for the cooking pot

He began working in March and still has not been paid a single Congolese franc.

As I watched he waved through one bicycle, then a couple of bicycles in tandem.

But this is not the most riveting of past-times, so I even played the role of an errant bicyclist, to give him a chance to blow his whistle.

Finally, Zama spotted a real problem.

From 20 metres his eagle eyes saw that all was not right with the front forks of an approaching bicycle.

Two short bursts on the whistle and the cyclist came to an abrupt halt and was given a stern talking-to by Zama, who waved his arms around in a slightly over-the-top manner considering the level of crime committed.

But the rider was smartly dispatched to the market to have the problem seen to.

A town with a more prosperous past

Perhaps the biggest shock about being a traffic policeman here though, is that there are 12 people co-ordinating the traffic in Gbadolite.

Zama was just telling me this when we were interrupted.

An official from the group in control of this part of Congo, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), wanted me off the junction.

My crime - causing congestion.