PRESS RELEASE
China and Africa Sign Deal for New Transport Links
Feb. 4, 2015 (EIRNS)—The major capitals of Africa are to be linked by road, rail, and air under a memorandum of understanding signed Jan. 27 between the African Union (AU) and China. When the AU-China project is complete, the Lusaka Times noted, “major African cities from Addis Ababa and Nairobi in the east, to Johannesburg in the south and Abuja in the west, will be connected by highways, high speed railways, and new international airports.”
The China Road and Bridge Company is currently building a high-speed railroad from Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, to the port of Mombasa on the Indian Ocean. This 610 km line is key for the creation of a transcontinental rail network, which is cruelly lacking in Africa.
Eventually, Mombasa would then be linked with Malaba in the west of the country, and from there, to Kampala (Uganda), Kigali (Rwanda) and Juba (South Sudan). As The Hindu pointed out, the continental importance of this deal was underlined by the fact that the leaders of those three countries, along with representatives from Tanzania and Burundi, were standing by his side when Chinese Premier Li Keqiang inked the deal in Nairobi.
The Kenyan rail line fits into the extension to Africa of the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” promoted by President Xi. The Chinese are currently developing seven deep water ports along the African coastline (Djibouti, Dar es Salaam, Maputo, Libreville, Tema, Dakar, and Bizerte).
