This is the project that will turn Las Palmas into the Pasito Blanco port of the Mid-Atlantic from 2029 onward, but the islanders do not care for two reasons: three years is an eternity, and the maritime business is no longer industrial but financial. In the case of Las Palmas, the number of genuinely competitive Canarian companies that are concerned can be counted on one hand. But this has always been the case, ever since the British arrived in 1920 with the help of Juan León y Castillo, an influence peddler in Las Palmas whom undocumented migrants revere.
Morocco and Mauritania have taken a decisive step toward establishing the major logistics artery of the African Atlantic. Morocco’s acting minister of Equipment and Water, Nizar Baraka, and his Mauritanian counterpart for Equipment and Transport, Ely Ould Mohamed El Veirik, signed a framework cooperation agreement in the Moroccan capital aimed at modernizing, widening and securing the cross-border road corridor linking the two countries through the strategic Guerguerat crossing. The agreement seeks to transform a historic transit route into an integrated economic platform connecting the Maghreb with the Sahel and West Africa.
Alignment with the Atlantic Initiative and Dakhla Atlantique
The agreement is directly aligned with the Atlantic Initiative promoted by King Mohammed VI, which is intended to provide landlocked Sahel states with sovereign and seamless access to the Atlantic Ocean. The cornerstone of this strategy is the development of the Dakhla Atlantique megaport, whose construction is already approximately 65% complete, with civil works expected to be finished between late 2028 and early 2029. The infrastructure, which is intended to emulate the success of Tanger Med and Nador West Med, requires this road link with Mauritania to channel cargo flows toward Nouakchott, Nouadhibou and the interior of the continent.
Network rehabilitation and the Guerguerat challenge
For Mauritania, the alliance reinforces its strategic plan to become the logistics bridge between North and West Africa, relying on its network of more than 5,900 kilometers of paved roads and the deep-water terminals at Nouakchott and Nouadhibou. However, road quality remains the bottleneck: World Bank data indicate that 25% of the Mauritanian network is severely deteriorated. The newly established technical committees will prioritize the coastal stretch between Dakhla and Guerguerat to prevent operational disruptions as heavy traffic increases.
Trans-African integration as far as Dakar
The modernization of the Morocco-Mauritania axis also connects with the future Maghreb highway and the corridor backed by the African Development Bank, which envisions common governance for the Nouadhibou-Nouakchott-Rosso-Dakar section. For logistics operators and investors, the agreement opens the door to the creation of free-trade zones, industrial parks and inland terminals along a route set to redefine maritime-land trade along the sub-Saharan Atlantic corridor.
Morocco and Mauritania agree to connect Dakhla Atlantique port with Senegal was first published on canarymaritime.com.
