Ex-development boss slams regime failure to build ‘Salvation Road’

A prominent Darfuri figure and former chairman of the Darfur Construction and Development Fund, Engineer Abdul Jabar Dossa, accused the government of incompetence and unwillingness to develop the states of Darfur. He considered the excuses for the failure to construct the Ingaz Road (‘Salvation Road’) for lack of funds and poor security as ‘unacceptable.’ He said that the road could have been built in three years instead of twenty. The Western Salvation Road has never been completed despite large budgetary allocations for the project. It is supposed to stretch from Khartoum to El Geneina once completed. The government has presented the project as a way of developing Sudan’s westernmost region. The road’s name is a reference to the cultural and political programme of the current regime, which used to call itself the “National Salvation” government. Last year the President and one of his former ministers publically exchanged corruption accusations related to the project.

Dossa said that the government’s lack of desire to complete the project is particularly evident in comparison with the efforts it exerted in the construction of the Merowe Dam in north-central Sudan. The dam cost two billion dollars and required also the construction of seven roads and eight bridges. According to Dossa, the Ingaz road would cost far less and its importance is more as it would tie half of Sudan with thirty other African nations. Dossa also strongly denied that lack of security has hindered the implementation of the project, noting that the project was underway before 2002, when there was security, but even then there was no construction.