Lagos-Mombasa Highway

The Lagos-Mombasa Highway (also known as the Mombasa-Lagos Highway) is Trans-African Highway 8 and is the principal road route between West and East Africa. It has a length of 6259 km and is contiguous with the Dakar-Lagos Highway with which it will form (when complete) the longest east-west crossing of the continent for a total distance of 10,269 km.

Part of the transcontinental road network under development by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the African Development Bank (ADB), and the African Union, the route crosses Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and Kenya.

Although the highway carries much traffic on its paved sections in Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda and Kenya, at present it is not a practical route between West and East since the central section across the Democratic Republic of the Congo consists only of tracks, which are impassable after the frequent heavy rain. The existence of dense rainforest, and the need for frequent river crossings, present huge challenges to road engineers. With no easy alternative routes, east-west trade has to go via air, or sea, and is consequently severely limited.

The highway was considered to run from Bangassou in the Central African Republic to Buta in DR Congo via Bondo, but after the Congo Civil Wars, the tracks between those towns became impassable. The DR Congo advises that the track from Zongo (across the river from Bangui) via Gemena, Lisala and Bumba to Buta is a higher priority for rehabilitation, and would recommend that alternative.

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