Senegalese President Abdoudalaye Wade said Friday the New Partnership for African Development (Nepad) has plans to construct a tunnel linking Africa with Europe under the Mediterranean sea.
”Nepad plans to construct a tunnel linking Africa to Europe under the Mediterranean Sea from the northern tip of Algeria through to Gibraltar,” Wade told a ministerial conference here on African environment, which ended on Friday.
Wade said the tunnel would strengthen trading potential between the two continents.
”It would be in the interest of Europe to fund this,” Wade said.
Wade told environment ministers that other programmes planned by Nepad included construction of a highway linking the Moroccan coastal city Tangiers to Mali further south.
Other Nepad projects would include an inter-Africa road network linking Dakar to Indian Ocean seaports, airports and railway lines on the eastern side of the continent.
Wade, on a two-day official visit to Uganda for talks with his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni, left later for neighbouring Kenya where on a three-day state visit, before going on to South Africa to attend next week’s African summit in Durban.
Nepad, the New Programme for Africa’s Development, is a rescue plan for the continent devised by South African President Thabo Mbeki and other leaders including President Wade. – AFP
