Why Ibrahim Traoré Is Building a Railway Across West Africa

Burkina Faso's $3 Billion Plan to Build a Railway Across West Africa Burkina Faso is one of the poorest and most landlocked countries on earth. Every bag of rice, every litre of fuel, every sheet of roofing metal imported into the capital Ouagadougou has to be trucked over a thousand kilometres from somebody else's port — at a cost that adds 30–40% to the price of everything. Now, Ghana and Burkina Faso are attempting to build a 950-kilometre standard-gauge railway from the deep-water port of Tema to the heart of Ouagadougou. The price tag: over $3 billion. Only 97 kilometres have been built so far. This is the story of the Ghana–Burkina Faso Railway Interconnectivity Project — from the colonial-era Abidjan line built with forced labour, through Thomas Sankara's unfinished Battle of the Railways, to a military government's $3 billion bet on a new path to the sea. We break down the engineering, the economics, the geopolitics, and the brutal question at the centre of it all: can this railway actually get built? Featuring the Tema–Mpakadan Railway (Ghana's first standard-gauge line), the Faso Rail domestic manufacturing project, the Alliance of Sahel States, and comparisons to the Ethiopia-Djibouti and Kenya SGR railways.—📐 Sources and references for this video are available upon request.🔔 Subscribe for more infrastructure, engineering, and development stories from across Africa and the world. 🗺️ Start Exploring Now: 👉 Explore Abuja Series:    • The ₦74 Billion Abuja Wuye Flyover Finally...   Explore Lagos:    • Game Changer or Gimmick? Touring Nigeria’s...   🚶 4K Walking Tours:    • Exploring Ikoyi, Lagos – Nigeria’s Beverly...   ✅ Subscribe and turn on the bell 🔔 so you don’t miss our next cinematic journey. 👍 Like what you see? Drop a comment — we read every one. #BurkinaFaso #Ghana #Railway #Infrastructure #Africa #Engineering #Megaproject