US EditionMorocco's Atlantic gambit: linking restive Sahel to ocean
- King Mohammed VI announced the Atlantic Initiative in late 2023 to build a $1.3 billion port in Western Sahara giving the Sahel states ocean access.
- The initiative responds to rising insecurity after French troops withdrew and military coups shifted Sahel states away from French influence toward Russia.
- The project involves a planned trade corridor requiring thousands of kilometers of road building through Mauritania, Mali, and Niger, with the route from Morocco to Mauritania nearly complete.
- Niger called the megaproject a godsend, while experts warned the corridor faces security threats and incomplete infrastructure despite backing from the US, France, and Gulf Arab states.
- The initiative seeks to transform the Sahel's economy and bolster Morocco's control over Western Sahara, suggesting a potential realignment of regional trade and influence if successful.
79 Articles
79 Articles
Morocco trade push links Sahel to Atlantic via Western Sahara
A planned trade corridor linking the landlocked Sahel to the Atlantic is at the heart of an ambitious Moroccan project to tackle regional instability and consolidate its grip on disputed Western Sahara. The "Atlantic Initiative" promises ocean access to Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger through a new $1.3-billion port in the former Spanish colony claimed by the pro-independence Polisario Front but largely controlled by Morocco. But the project remain…
Morocco’s Atlantic gambit: linking restive Sahel to ocean
A planned trade corridor linking the landlocked Sahel to the Atlantic is at the heart of an ambitious Moroccan project to tackle regional instability and consolidate its grip on disputed Western Sahara. The "Atlantic Initiative" promises ocean access to Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger through a new $1.3-billion port in the former Spanish colony claimed
Paris - Arabic Jerusalem: The French magazine John Averick said that while the Royal Moroccan Lines are strengthening their expansionist strategy on the African continent, Algerian airlines are reorienting their road map, influenced by diplomatic tensions but driven by renewed political will. The opening of new lines, the development of aerobics, the acquisition of new aircraft... the two most active Moroccan airlines on the African continent co…
By Mohamed El-Maadi – Morocco dreams of becoming a regional power. It fantasizes about being an African model. It imagines itself a mediator in crises, a reliable ally of the West, a driving force in the Maghreb. But behind the repainted facades of Rabat and the empty speeches of Davos, it is a breathless, fragile kingdom, running on credit behind its own legend. Socially, the country is faltering. Youth unemployment exceeds 30%, rural areas are…
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