Carretera Tinduf-Zuérate: Argelia busca el Atlántico a través de Mauritania

At the end of 2021 - during the official visit of the President of Mauritania, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, to Algeria, at the invitation of the Algerian President himself, Abdelmadjid Tebboune - Nouakchott and Algiers closed the largest Algerian project outside their borders since the declaration of the Republic's independence in 1962. The Tindouf (Algeria) - Zarate (Mauritania) race. A route of nearly 775 kilometres of asphalt that will cross part of the Sahara desert through both countries, and which - it is hoped - will serve to bring Algiers closer to the Atlantic Ocean. 

Now, after the first working session of the Algerian-Mauritanian Joint Committee for the construction of the road - co-chaired by the Algerian Minister of Public Works, Hydraulics and Basic Infrastructure, Lakhdar Rakhroukh, and the Mauritanian Minister of Equipment and Transport, Nani Ould Chrougha -, Rakhroukh explained in an official statement that it will be "over the next few days when the preliminary and exhaustive studies of this project will be launched". 

"The project of this road will have a great economic and social scope on a regional and continental scale," said the Algerian minister, arguing that it will become an international transit corridor, since both Mauritania and Algeria are two key points in the transit of goods and people between Europe, the Maghreb, West Africa and the rest of the continent. In addition to "promoting the export of [Algerian] national products to other African countries and reviving the economy of the entire region". 

However, according to al Arab News, international observers claim that this is only the second Algerian attempt to access the sea after Morocco took administrative control of the Karkarat crossing (located in the south of the Sahrawi territory, in the administrative region of Ad-Dachla-Wadi az-Zahab, the only border crossing to Mauritania) three years ago, frustrating its efforts to use its good relations with the Polisario Front to reach the Atlantic. According to analysts quoted by the Arab daily, Algiers has therefore made efforts to find new alternative routes to West African markets and provide it with an outlet to the sea to trade with Europe. This could improve its position vis-à-vis its regional enemy, Morocco.

In this vein, some of these same observers believe that the change in Algerian strategy could mark the beginning of a revision of relations between Algiers and the Polisario Front, as - they argue - the Sahrawi group could be starting to become a military, diplomatic and economic burden for Tebboune. 

The Tindouf - Zarate road will be built by more than a dozen Algerian companies, including EVSM, ETTR Ouargla, EPTP Alger, Cosider TP or SERA Oran, and will be operated by Algiers through a 10-year concession that will be tacitly renewed after it starts operating. According to the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the two countries will make the race a "vital way to serve the common interests of the two countries, strengthening the social and humanitarian ties between them". "The Algerian side will guarantee the financing of technical studies related to its completion," the text read, while the Mauritanian side will provide the legal, administrative and logistical facilities, granting the necessary tax and customs exemptions.

Already in 2018, Algeria and Mauritania began preparations for the opening of a border crossing to facilitate the movement of people and goods, and to promote trade and economic exchange, but the lack of the necessary complementary infrastructure did not allow them to achieve their goals.