Sudan Leads the Way for Dakar-Port Sudan Railway Project

The LaRouche Plan for Africa is taking a huge leap these days as African nations, led by Sudan and the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), finalized their decision to start the construction of the Dakar-Port Sudan railway connecting West and East Africa with a 10,000 km rail line and development corridors. The announcement came in the context of a meeting of the foreign ministers of Turkey and Egypt yesterday, January 2, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, with the Secretary General of the OIC, Professor Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, to discuss the Darfur donors conference (under the auspices of the OIC, not the UN) to be held in March. That the solution for the humanitarian crisis in Darfur is kicking out the British Empire and bringing economic development to the region are the two points the LaRouche associates brought to the Khartoum conference on International Justice last April.

Even more interesting, Professor Ihsanoglu stated that the Dakar-Port Sudan railway project is supported enthusiastically by Russia and China! He said that the OIC has accepted the working plan for the project and will start discussing the financing for the project, through participation of the relevant nations located on the line and the Islamic Development Bank, based in Saudi Arabia and the OIC.

Sudan will host the official headquarters of the project. In early December 2009, President of Sudan Omar Hasan Al-Bashir keynoted a major conference of the OIC transport ministers in the Friendship Hall in Khartoum, where he discussed the Dakar-Port Sudan railway and thanked the OIC for its support of the project. The Sudanese Transport Minister, Philip Thon Leek, told the conference that the whole world will benefit from this project. Leek briefed the ministers on Sudan's plans to connect the country to its African neighbors through railways, urging the African nations to exert their utmost efforts in building railways due to the importance of railways in achieving development and stability.

In that December conference, Professor Ihsanoglu stressed the willingness of the member states of the OIC to implement the ten-year development plans agreed upon in 2005 to face the financial crisis and the effects of globalization. He called upon the OIC leaders to rally the support for implementing and accomplishing this project.

On December 10, Khartoum hosted the meeting of the expert groups of the OIC members participating in the Dakar-Port Sudan project. Mr. Mabrouk Mubarak Selim, State Minister in the Sudanese Transport Ministry, keynoted the opening session stating: The project is aiming at connecting the African deserts through the rail line, bringing the depth of Africa in contact with both the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea through 10,000 km of rail lines.

Engineer Hamza Omar Al-Fadhelabi, Director of Sudan's Railway Authority, said that the project will have a main corridor with an 8,000 km trunk line, 4,000 km of which is already connected but needs rehabilitation and overhaul. The other 4,000 consists of connections extending to the capitals of some member states. Al-Fadhelabi added that there are nations that are not crossed by the main trunk line, such as Libya, Uganda, and Djibouti, which will also be connected to the project. He explained that the rail line will make it possible to pass directly from East Africa to its Western coast. He emphasized that the project represents a major transformation process for the African continent in economic, political, and touristic aspects.

Mr. Mohammed Altayib Qasamallah, chairman of the committee in charge of the continental railway project, said: The proposed strategic project is the fruit of the draft resolution presented by Sudan to the OIC and passed at the OIC Summit in Senegal in March 2008. He noted that the railway project will encompass 13 African nations along the main trunk line, and 6 more nations on the secondary lines.