The Port Sudan-Dakar Continental Railway Receives Momentum as Senegal Prepares its Infrastructure to Connect

Sudanhorizon – Othman Siddiq

The new Senegalese government intends to build an effective railway network to support the country’s economy. A statement to the Senegalese Press Agency stated that the country’s president, “Macky Sall,” witnessed the launch of the rehabilitation work of the railway line linking Dakar—Kidira, which means connecting the country from its westernmost point to its easternmost point last Wednesday. The line, which will be 650 km long, will pass through its flank, Tambacounda.

The concerned authorities stated that they want to give the railways a new impetus and renew their infrastructure because they believe that the current railways, which date back more than a hundred years, no longer meet the country’s current development needs.

Part of the Continental Line

The follow-ups of the Sudanhorizon news website indicate that these efforts to develop the railway line come as an integral part of the Port Sudan-Dakar continental line, which was previously announced by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation at the Dakar Summit in March 2008, and extends for a distance of 10,100 kilometres, and is considered one of the most significant development projects, aiming to enhance trade exchange and advance the economies of the African member states of the organisation, and passes through seven African countries: Sudan, Chad, Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal, and also connects Gambia and Guinea to the west, Libya to the north, Cameroon in the centre, and Uganda to the south. This enables these countries to enhance trade exchange and facilitate transportation from the continent’s east to its west and vice versa.

Transporting Pilgrims

According to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the most crucial purpose of this line is to transport tens of thousands of pilgrims via this line to Port Sudan to reduce the cost of Hajj and facilitate performing the fifth pillar to the average Muslim.

The railway line was expected to significantly impact the region, as it would help achieve the agreed development goals, including those announced in the organisation’s ten-year work program from 2016 to 2025 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The initial line could also develop into a railway network covering the entire Africa, despite the differences in track gauge between the old and new lines.

Sudan: The Starting Point of the Project

As for Khartoum, the capital of the country where this project will be based, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Gibril Ibrahim, stressed with his Nigerian counterpart, Wale Idun, on the sidelines of the “COCAS” conference – a regional economic forum aimed at enhancing economic and trade cooperation between the countries of the African continent, held in Abuja, Nigeria at the end of last July – the importance of linking East Africa with West Africa by activating the implementation of the Port Sudan-Dakar railway line. Nigeria pledged to support Sudan’s efforts in mobilising the support of the African Development Bank, in addition to discussing common positions ahead of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, scheduled to be held in the United States of America this year. The interim plan for the period (2015-2026) is still weakly implemented.

Lost Project Opportunities

The implementation of the project in Sudan has faltered despite the efforts made and the urgent need for it economically and strategically. This is due to the unilateral economic sanctions that the country has suffered significantly since the last decade, with several political arguments looming from the US administration. In October 2017, the Ministry of Transport, Roads and Bridges announced talks with the Turkish Railways Authority on the Port Sudan-Dakar line project. It revealed that the Turkish side expressed its desire to participate in financing and building the railway section from Port Sudan to N’Djamena. The ministry signed a comprehensive memorandum of understanding with the Turkish Railways Authority, which includes presenting a presentation on the various needs of the railway during the first quarter of 2018 and an agreement to build the capacity of the Sudanese Railways employees through training in various fields.

After the project’s implementation stalled, Sudan signed an agreement in mid-November 2022 with a Qatari company to build railway lines between Port Sudan and the Adre region on the border with Chad at an estimated cost of $15 billion. The Gulf Company offers to establish the project at a value of (15) billion dollars with two standard lines and electric trains, with revenues from operation with accompanying projects and a solar power plant to operate the trains with an undisclosed payment period.

The project is a railway train for passengers and goods with a standard width and two parallel lines serving 12 major Sudanese cities, including Port Sudan, Haya, Kassala, Al-Qadarif, Sennar, Kosti, Al-Abyad, Ardeiba, Abu Jabara, Nyala, Zalingei, Al-Geneina, and Adre. The length of the line inside Sudan is about 2467 kilometres and serves (134) stations.

A full year later, the Saudi Press Agency reported in November 2017 that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation renewed its determination to move forward with innovative steps to complete the Dakar-Port Sudan railway project. The Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Affairs of the Organization, Ambassador Hamid Obiloyor, indicated in the speech he delivered before the special session held in Istanbul on the sidelines of the 33rd session of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC), the formation of an alliance with the African Union, as the sponsor of the Dakar-Djibouti transport line project, and he indicated that ensuring the continued involvement of regional organisations by the Economic Community of West African States and the West African Economic and Monetary Union in the “Dakar-Port Sudan” project comes to gradually implement regional projects and address the difficulties that hinder the financing of the project. In addition to discussing the consolidation of cooperation with non-member states of the organisation, such as China and others, to ensure their participation in implementing the project by contributing to capacity building and providing financial support to project owners, as the project will constitute a meeting point with the Chinese project for developing transportation infrastructure, called the “Belt Road” and the slogan “One Road.. One Belt”.

In May 2019, the Sudan News Agency reported that a meeting of the Transitional Military Council included the Director General of the Railways and the Director of the Chinese company (CRCC 16) implementing the Port Sudan-Sennar railway project, which is 897 kilometres long and costs 3 billion dollars, funded by the Chinese government. The agency indicated that this represents the first part of the Port Sudan-Dakar railway project within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative projects funded by China at 60 billion dollars, in addition to it being an extension of the Ethiopian Al-Azaza-Al-Qalabat-Al-Matama line project, for which the African Development Bank agreed to finance its economic feasibility study.

The Problem of Track Divergence

On the domestic front, the Sudanese government sought to address the problem of track divergence during the period between the South’s secession. So, it worked on importing appropriate spare parts and towing machines from the Republic of South Africa, some of which were used to update and upgrade the line linking Madani to Khartoum and then Khartoum to Atbara.

Dakar Preparations

For its part, the Senegalese capital has made great strides in integrating railways into its inter-city transportation. The Dakar Express Train was officially inaugurated in December 2021, one of the main projects of the Emerging Senegal Plan (PSE), which embodies the great ambition of the country’s prosperity by 2035. The African Development Bank Group published on June 27, 2022, that the Dakar Express Train Project focuses on sustainable urban mobility development to address traffic congestion affecting traffic in Dakar. Recent studies have shown that Senegal loses more than $200 million due to traffic congestion. The issue of alleviating road congestion is linked to another undeniable issue: reducing pollution. Investing in an electric train reduces pollution by more than 32%.

The African Development Bank Group has mobilised more than $200 million for the project, and 13 stations were built on a 36-kilometre line linking Dakar. In the new city of Diamniadio, a line with a group of 15 trains with a maximum speed of 150 km/h and a capacity of 115,000 passengers per day who reach their destination three times faster and pay a third of the price compared to a taxi, it is in fact a fast train for the benefit of the path of progress and development in Senegal.