Transport in Burkina Faso consists primarily of road, air and rail transportation. The World Bank classified country's transportation as underdeveloped but noted that Burkina Faso is a natural geographic transportation hub for West Africa. [1]
Transport in Burkina Faso consists primarily of road, air and rail transportation. The World Bank classified country's transportation as underdeveloped but noted that Burkina Faso is a natural geographic transportation hub for West Africa. [1]
In 2002, there were a total of 12,506 kilometres (7,771 mi) of highway in Burkina Faso, of which 2,001 kilometres (1,243 mi) are paved. [2]
In 2000, the Government of Burkina Faso classified 15,000 kilometers of road as part of the national road network managed under the Ministry of Infrastructures Transport and Housing (MITH) through the Directorate of Roads (DGR). This network includes main inter-city roads and access roads for départments' capital cities. Only ten of the network's main roads are even partially paved, and the paved roads are plagued by dangerous potholes, missing signage, missing barriers and guardrails near roadside hazards, and no pavement markings to separate traffic moving in opposite directions [3]
As of May 2011 the country's road infrastructure was rated by the World Bank to be in relatively good condition and noted that country was regional hub with paved roads linking the country to Mali, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, and Niger. [4] Nevertheless, "trucking cartels and red tape contribute to high transportation costs and diminished international competitiveness." [4] 58% of firms in Burkina Faso identified roads as major business constraint, maintenance and rehabilitation needs of the main road network are said to be underfunded. [5]
There are international airports at Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso and numerous smaller airfields. In 2004, the number of airports totaled 23, only 2 of which had paved runways as of 2005. [6] Air Burkina, which began in 1967, is government-run and has a monopoly on domestic service but also flies to neighboring countries.
Ouagadougou airport handles about 98% percent of all scheduled commercial air traffic in Burkina Faso. Air Burkina and Air France handle about 60% of all scheduled passenger traffic. [7] Between 2005 and 2011, air passenger traffic at Ouagadougou airport grew at an average annual rate of 7.0 percent per annum reaching about 404,726 passengers in 2011 and was estimated to reach 850,000 by 2025. [7] In 2007 Ouagadougou airport was the fifteenth busiest airport in West Africa in passenger volume, just ahead of Port Harcourt (Nigeria) and behind Banjul (Gambia). [7] The total air cargo at Ouagadougou airport grew 71% from 4,350 tons in 2005 to about 7,448 tons in 2009. [7]
The government plans to close the Ouagadougou airport upon construction of the new Ouagadougou-Donsin Airport, [8] approximately 35 km northeast of Ouagadougou. The new airport is expected to be completed around 2018 and the government received an $85 million loan from the World Bank to help finance the construction. [7] The government of Burkino Faso believed that the project would cost $618 million. [9]
There are 622 kilometres of railway in Burkina Faso, of which 517 km run from Ouagadougou to Abidjan, Ivory Coast; and 105 km from Ouagadougou to Kaya. As of June 2014 Sitarail operates a passenger train three times a week along the route from Ouagadougou to Abidjan via Banfora, Bobo-Dioulasso and Koudougou. [10]
All of the railways in the country are of 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) metre gauge . Only Ivory Coast is connected to Burkina Faso by rail.
Instability in Ivory Coast in 2003 forced a rerouting of rail freight from the Abidjan corridor to ports in Togo, Benin, and Ghana via the road network. [11] A proposed rail link between Ouagadougou and Pô in Burkina Faso and Kumasi and Boankra in Ghana, has been discussed with Ghanaian officials, and feasibility studies are being undertaken to explore this possibility, which would provide rail access to the inland port of Bonakra. [12] Burkina Faso and Ghana use different rail gauges and this break-of-gauge can be overcome to a greater or lesser extent with a number of methods. [13]
In 2006, an Indian proposal surfaced to link the railways in Benin and Togo with landlocked Niger and Burkina Faso. Additionally, a Czech proposal also surfaced to link Ghana railways with Burkina Faso. [14] [15] The manganese deposits near Dori are one source of traffic. Burkina Faso would also be a participant in the AfricaRail project.
In May, 2011 the World Bank reported that Sitarail had recovered well from the political crisis in Ivory Coast but was experiencing financial distress, needed to re-balance its financial structure and find alternative funding for rehabilitation backlog. [4]
The following towns of Burkina Faso are served by the country's railways:
Burkina Faso is a landlocked Sahel country that shares borders with six nations. It lies between the Sahara desert and the Gulf of Guinea, south of the loop of the Niger River, mostly between latitudes 9° and 15°N, and longitudes 6°W and 3°E. The land is green in the south, with forests and fruit trees, and semi-arid in the north. Most of central Burkina Faso lies on a savanna plateau, 198–305 metres (650–1,001 ft) above sea level, with fields, brush, and scattered trees. Burkina Faso's game preserves – the most important of which are Arly, Nazinga, and W National Park—contain lions, elephants, hippopotamus, monkeys, common warthogs, and antelopes. Previously the endangered painted hunting dog, Lycaon pictus occurred in Burkina Faso, but, although the last sightings were made in Arli National Park, the species is considered extirpated from Burkina Faso.
Ivory Coast invested remarkably in its transport system. Transport Infrastructures are much more developed than they are other West African countries despite a crisis that restrained their maintenance and development. Since its independence in 1960, Ivory Coast put an emphasis on increasing and modernizing the transport network for human as well as for goods. Major infrastructures of diverse nature were built including railways, roads, waterways, and airports. In spite of the crisis, neighbor countries still strongly depend on the Ivorian transport network for importing, exporting, and transiting their immigrants to Ivory Coast.
Transport in Ghana is accomplished by road, rail, air and water. Ghana's transportation and communications networks are centered in the southern regions, especially the areas in which gold, cocoa, and timber are produced. The northern and central areas are connected through a major road system.
Ouagadougou or Wagadugu is the capital of Burkina Faso, and the administrative, communications, cultural and economic centre of the nation. It is also the country's largest city, with a population of 2,415,266 in 2019. The city's name is often shortened to Ouaga. The inhabitants are called ouagalais. The spelling of the name Ouagadougou is derived from the French orthography common in former French African colonies.
Bobo-Dioulasso is a city in Burkina Faso with a population of 1,129,000 ; it is the second-largest city in the country, after Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's capital. The name means "home of the Bobo-Dioula".
The regions of Burkina Faso are divided into 45 administrative provinces. These 45 provinces are currently sub-divided into 351 departments or communes.
Koudougou is a city in Burkina Faso's Boulkiemdé Province. It is located 75 kilometres (47 mi) west of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. With a population of 160,239 (2019), it is the third most populous city in Burkina Faso after Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso, and is mainly inhabited by the Gurunsi and Mossi ethnic groups. Koudougou is situated on the only railway line in Burkina Faso and has some small industries, a market, a university and provincial government offices.
Banfora is a city in south western Burkina Faso, with a population of 117,452 making it the sixth most populous city in Burkina Faso. It is the capital of the Comoe province. The city lies 85 kilometres (53 mi) south-west of Bobo-Dioulasso, on the Abidjan – Ouagadougou Railway. The Cascades de Karfiguéla are a series of waterfalls close to Banfora.
Centre-Ouest is one of Burkina Faso's 13 administrative regions. The population of Centre-Ouest was 1,659,339 in 2019. The region's capital is Koudougou. Four provinces make up the region.
Articles related to Burkina Faso include:
The Trans-Sahelian Highway or TAH 5 is a transnational highway project to pave, improve and ease border formalities on a highway route through the southern fringes of the Sahel region in West Africa between Dakar, Senegal in the west and Ndjamena, Chad, in the east. Alternative names for the highway are the Dakar-Ndjamena Highway or Ndjamena-Dakar Highway and it is Trans-African Highway 5 in the Trans-African Highway network.
Football is the most popular sport in Burkina Faso. And the national association can look back on recent developments with a great deal of pride. Reaching the semi-finals of the African Cup of Nations on home soil in 1998, reaching the knockout stage for their first FIFA World Youth Championship in 2003, and appearances at two final competitions of the CAF U-17 Cup, as well as third place at the FIFA U-17 World Championship in Trinidad and Tobago in 2001 are the country's outstanding achievements at international level. The nations most famous players include Kassoum Ouegraogo, nicknamed Zico, who had his most successful seasons with Espérance de Tunis before ending his career in Germany, Siaka Ouattara, who spent his entire career with Mulhouse in France, and Moumouni Dagano, who was voted best African player in Belgium in 2001, when he played for the Belgian side Genk. He later went on to play for the French side Guingamp before transferring to another French team, FC Sochaux in 2005. Burkina Faso received an unexpected free pass into the group stage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification process, when their opening round contestant, the Central African Republic, withdrew from the competition. This gave the West Africans, who were at that stage ranked 14th on the continent, the certainty that their name would be in the hat when the Preliminary Draw for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany was made. They got off to a flying start, beating Ghana 1-0 in their opening match and laying down a marker for their Group 2 adversaries South Africa, Cape Verde Islands, Congo DR and Uganda. The victory train began to come off the rails with two defeats to Cape Verde, and with a record of two wins and three losses, Burkina Faso were up against it at the half-way stage. Frenchman Bernard Simondi took over the coaching reins from Ivica Todorov and made the team harder to beat at home, even recording wins over South Africa and Congo DR, but in the end it was not quite enough, and the likes of Abdoulaye Cisse, Moumouni Dagano, and Wilfred Sanou went no further in the competition.
There are 622 kilometres of 1,000 mmmetre gauge railway in Burkina Faso, which run from Kaya to the border with Côte d'Ivoire and is part of the Abidjan-Ouagadougou railway. As of June 2014, 'Sitarail' operates a passenger train three times a week along the route from Ouagadougou to Abidjan. Journey time is 43 to 48 hours.
Ivory Coast has 660 kilometres of railway. The track gauge is 1,000 mm.
The 2003 African Youth Championship was an association football tournament for under-20 players. It was held in Burkina Faso from January 4 until January 18. The top four teams qualified for the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship.
The 2011 Burkina Faso protests were a series of popular protests in Burkina Faso.
Victor Démé was a Burkinabé musician and singer-songwriter originating from a Mandinka family. His death was caused by a bout of malaria.
The 2004–05 Burkinabé Premier League is the 43rd edition of top flight football in Burkina Faso. A total of fourteen teams competed in the season beginning on 11 December 2004 and ending on 9 July 2005. Rail Club du Kadiogo were champions and Sanmantenga FC finished last and were relegated.
The Abidjan-Niger Railway is a 1,260-kilometre (780-mile) single-track metre gauge line in francophone West Africa that links Abidjan, the economic capital of Ivory Coast to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. The railway, like others on the continent, was constructed by the colonial power to encourage economic development in the region, although detractors would claim that it was to exploit the region solely for their own advantage.
This article incorporates public domain material from The World Factbook. CIA.
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