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Transport in Western Sahara is very limited by sea, road and air with camels being the primary means of transport.[1]
Rail
A 5-kilometre (3.1 mi) section of the Mauritania Railway; which (since the closure of the Choum Tunnel), cuts across the extreme south-eastern corner of the territory of Western Sahara. Passengers with tickets ride in cramped cars while many illegal passengers, sometimes with livestock, ride on top of freight cars.[2] [3]
Roads
There are only 6,200 kilometres (3,900 mi) of roads, of which 1,126 kilometres (700 mi) are metalled.[4]
A small network of highways provide limited ground travel connections. N1 highway is a major roadway traversing along the Atlantic coastline of the country. There are a few roads in the north and only two roads in the south that branches off of N1.
All other roads are local ones in the various cities and towns.
Off road driving is considered dangerous since there are "thousands of unexploded mines" in the area.[2]
Highway road plans in the region started by Algeria have been used to increase its own influence in the region.[5]
Ports
Ports include:
- Ad Dakhla - small docking facility (Port Marchand Lassarga/Port-Îlot) located in a shelter bay south of the airport
- Cabo Bojador - small port with fishing boats store inland
- Laayoune (El Aaiun) - major deep water port facility; used by vessels carrying phosphate, large fishing vessels, military patrol boats, etc.
The longest conveyor belt in the world is 100 kilometres (62 mi) long, from the phosphate mines of Bu Craa to the coast south of Laayoune.[6] The belt moves about 2,000 metric tons of rock containing phosphate every hour from the mines to El-Aaiun, where it is loaded and shipped.[6]
Airports
There are 6 airfields, 3 with paved runways and 3 unpaved surfaces, and one helipad (military in Cape Bojador). Hassan I Airport is an international airport, but the carriers at the airport connect only to regional destinations (to Morocco or the Canary Islands).
Buses
There are only 4 companies licensed to use buses in Western Sahara which are: CTM, Supratours, Satas and Sat CTM and Supratours buses have daily service from Dakhla to Marrakech via Laayoune and Agadir
See also
Sources
- CIA World Factbook (2010).
References
- ^ Pablo San Martin 2010.
- ^ a b "Western Sahara". Gov.Uk. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
- ^ Sutter, John D. (26 January 2016). "The 'Normal Train' That Crosses the Sahara". CNN. Retrieved 17 October 2016.
- ^ USOIM & USDIBA 2009.
- ^ Ammour 2014, p. 94.
- ^ a b Zhang, Sarah (24 April 2014). "The World's Longest Conveyor Belt System Can Be Seen From Space". Gizmodo. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
Bibliography
- Ammour, Laurence Aida (2014). "The Algerian Foreign Policy on Western Sahara". In Boukhars, Anouar; Roussellier, Jacques (eds.). Perspectives on Western Sahara: Myths, Nationalisms, and Geopolitics. New York: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781442226852.
- Pablo San Martin (1 October 2010), Western Sahara: The Refugee Nation, University of Wales Press, p. 28, ISBN 978-0-70-832381-6
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link) - United States. Office of International Marketing; United States. Domestic and International Business Administration (15 June 2009), Market profiles for Africa, Dept. of Commerce, Domestic and International Business Administration, Bureau of International Commerce, Office of International Marketing : for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. Govt. Print. Off., 1976, p. 26
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