Hi there,
for long time already, we wanted to share some information that might be useful for other travellers with a similar itinerary.
This shortly summarizes some organizational issues, insecurities and difficulties we encountered while crossing Africa from West to East along the Sahel during our cross African travel between March 2017 and March 2018 for those who are about to plan or are already on tour. So no romantic travel reports here for the time being. I'm sorry for the delay as I wanted to contribute our experiences here already monthes ago.

As part of our originally planned stretch we aimed to pass Morrokko, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Chad into the Sudan, and to continue towards the south via Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania ...

Morokko was straight forward, nothing special.

In Mauritania, (we came from the Atar/Tidjikja area) there were a few police posts along the road between Kiffa and Ayoûn el Atrous, all very friendly. One suggested to stay over night between the trees a few hundred meters from the check point as it was already late.

Just before the Mauritanian-Malian border, there was a police check point that demanded to sign a paper stating that we enter the border area on our own risks and in full awareness of the security situation.

In Mali, visa already in the passport, passing the border was simple and straight forward. We get a 3 month ECOWAS third party insurance (for all countries of the the West-African Economic Union) at the border. We are told, that their representative in Nioro du Sahel at the customs station will print a carte brune. In Nioro du Sahel (just before entering the town), the customs procedure is done and the representative of the insurance company catches us right at the entrance to hand out the carte brune.

In Nioro du Sahel, the police is nervous about European foreigners. In the evening, we had to leave our camp site at the premises of a hotel and had to move to the premises of the police.

The insecurity and activities in the Northern and Eastern regions of Mali made us take the road via Burkina Faso to Niger.

In Bamako, the embassy of Burkina Faso issues the visas on the same day.

In Ouaga, the embassy of the Niger issues visa in 3 days.

In Niamey, we contacted the Chadian embassy for visa, and were told that an invitation letter of a registered person (friend, family) or company is required. Unfortunately, we didn't have any contact to people in Chad before. However, a friend suggested to contact hotels, travel agencies and look at AirBnB. To look at the latter is strongly recommended. The contact immediately wrote an invitation letter for each of us. The embassy accepted the letter and issued the visa. The only entrance into Chad officially accepted in the embassy is via N'Djamena Airport. However, it is not written in your visa, and therefore nobody bothers at the land border station.

However, crossing the border directly from Niger to Chad seems impossible (accept one drives off the main pistes and avoids the check points).

The Tenéré passage to go to Dirkou and Bilma is closed for foreigners without police escort. The police in Agadez allowed us to go into the Air (very exceptional permission of the chief of the police on duty) but stopped us later 100 km Eastern of Agadez in the Tenéré (we got there by taking a small piste from Agadez without the usual check point at the town exit).

The area Eastern of Zinder and Gouré is essentially closed for foreigners too. We got stopped by the police in Gouré just a day before a massive Boko-Haram attack took place on a village not far away. We were also not allowed to go to the Massif de Termit without police escort.

Because of recent attacks of Boko Haram in the South-East of Niger, the North of Nigeria, the North-West of Cameroon and the lake Chad area, we took the warning not to pass Nigeria's Northern territory serious and planned for an alternative via Benin, the South of Nigeria and Cameroon again up North to the Chad.

Benin was relaxed travelling without police check points or any other stress.

The Nigerian embassy issued visa in Cottonou right away in the afternoon after presenting the prints of the online application, payment receipt and our passed travel itinerary proven by copies of the visa in the passport. Thus, no need to apply the visa in our home country. The secretary was very friendly and understood very well our situation.

Nigeria started to be stressful at the border. However, we managed to get a 'laisser-passer' for transit of the vehicle free of charge. Every official opened his hand but finally accepted that we don't pay bribes. Some police posts were very aggressive along the road.

In Calabar, we found the Cameroonian consulate that issues visa right away.

In Cameroon, everything was relaxed. Friendly police, friendly customs officers. We crossed the border from Nigeria taking a small road from Calabar to Ekang, Otu, passed a small border station but had to drive up to the bigger border station in Ekok (Cameroon) to get the customs papers done. The customs officer there issued a 'laisser-passer' for transit of the vehicle free of charge. Note: as Cameroon, Chad and Sudan are joined in a customs union, the 'laisser-passer' is valid in all three countries but needs to be stamped at the borders between those countries.

The Far-Northern territory is threatened by attacks of Boko-Haram passing the borders from Nigeria. In Mora, we were stopped by police because of eminent threat of Boko Haram attacks on villages. The police was extremely friendly and did care a lot. They tried passionately to organise a military escort of the B.I.R 'Brigade Interventionne Rapide'. However, unfortunately, they could not get clearances right away, and thus, send us back to Maroua to talk to the governor directly the same day. The governor approved and organised the escort from Maroua to Kousséri right away with the B.I.R for the next morning.

In Chad, entering Chad from Kousséri was difficult but doable. It took all together 4 hours. Lots of questions and answering sessions with different people from different offices: border police, state security, customs . They were all inexperienced with travelers like us and possibly afraid of making mistakes while the government was in serious trouble these days.

In Chad, for traveling , 'authorization de circuler' is required for tourists and others, i.e. people not attached to any organisation, governmental body or company, need to go to the 'Ministère du Development Touristique, de la Culture et de Artisanat' and meet with the 'DG - director generale'. He organises the official demand for the 'authorization de circuler' at the 'Ministère du Interior', contacts the officials there and sends you to their office to deliver the demand and 'authorization de circuler'. It is all in the same area.

The Sudanese embassy is a little reserved to issue visa for non-Chadian people because of border crossings to Darfur. However, after we presented our past travel itinerary, proven by the visa in the passports, and showing a serious interest in traveling to the Sudan and also presenting our planned itinerary for the Sudan, they promised to send the application to Khartoum (likely office of state security or foreign ministry). In our case, it may have taken 1-4 weeks. They approved the visa application in a written letter, and the embassy issued the visa within the next 24 hours.

Unfortunately, we had to stay in N'Djamena longer than planned due to an armed robbery (passports, money etc gone) and injuries, and Malaria. In N'Djamena, there was high tension those days. The government was almost bankrupt and didn't pay public employees, e.g. police and military etc. After we got the Sudan visa and all our papers renewed, we continued.

With the 'authorization de circuler', we experienced a very relaxed travelling in Chad and easy passing of police check points, a beautiful, relaxed and very friendly country.

Crossing the border from Chad to Sudan is manageable. The piste from Abéché although 170 km may be a challenge during the rainy season (perhaps even officially closed because of the full oueds). We were warned about carjackers in the area.

In Sudan, we faced a very unfriendly and very aggressive state security patrol right after the first border post. These people are inexperienced with Europeans in Darfur. We were friendly but determined and waited it out. We didn't allow access to vehicle. After a while they organised a contact with high police/military/state security officials ( major generals ... those with many stars on their shoulders). We had a relaxing phone conversation, they picked us up from the post, shared fruits with us, organised paperwork, escort and accommodation through the Darfur region via Nyala. From El Fasher on, we were traveling on our own again and loved it !
However, during the weeks of our stay, none of the ATM's accepted Western credit cards (used our cash reserves of Euros and Dollars).

In Khartoum, the Ethiopian embassy issues visa in 25 minutes but only for Dollars.

The Ethiopian border police station wanted to have an official address and telefon number of our next accommodation.

The Kenyan embassy in Addis issues visa in a few days for Dollars only. The central branch of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia opposite of the national theater in Addis seemed the only bank that changes Euros into Dollars or upon a prior withdrawal with the credit card and a receipt.


Overall, we experienced extremely friendly people. Most police and military people were polite. And with a little cooperation, the check points were no problem. Just a little annoying. There were a few cases, when discussing with the police was exhausting and made us feel uncomfortable but barely threatened.


After all, we are back physically but linger with our minds still there.

best
Henrik

Thanks for a great trip report Henrik.
AirBnB for visas - why not? ;-)

Graphic from https://www.acleddata.com/2018/06/05...a-5-june-2018/
shows it was quite an achievement.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Thanks for sharing this, you just made a dream-trip of mine, one that I hope to make in the next few years. I would be very keen to see some pictures, if you have a plan to put them online at some point.

One question: do you speak French?

Thanks

EO

__________________
EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.

Brilliant! Now my mind starts to wander over there, too!
Sounds like you were very determined to get the trip done and you did - hats off to you!

Shows that it can be done, if persistent enough. Like REALLY persistent.

Thank you for sharing. Brings back memories.

Only one word: Bravo!
RR.