The Friendship Port (''Port de l'Amité'') is an artificial deepwater

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

located in

Nouakchott , image_skyline = Nouakchott.jpg , image_caption = City view of Nouakchott , pushpin_map = Mauritania#Arab world#Africa , pushpin_relief = 1 , mapsize = , map_caption ...

Mauritania Mauritania (; ar, موريتانيا, ', french: Mauritanie; Berber: ''Agawej'' or ''Cengit''; Pulaar: ''Moritani''; Wolof: ''Gànnaar''; Soninke:), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ( ar, الجمهورية الإسلامية ...

. It was built during the 1980s by a Chinese company to allow the city, capital of Mauritania, to be supplied more cheaply than by overland from

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 2 ...

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 � ...

. As the location is not a natural harbor, concrete block

breakwater Breakwater may refer to: * Breakwater (structure), a structure for protecting a beach or harbour Places * Breakwater, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia * Breakwater Island Breakwater Island () is a small island in the Palme ...

s had to be used to create a safe location for the ships. Plans are being made to increase its capacity.

History

There are no natural deepwater ports along the Atlantic coast of Africa between

Nouadhibou Nouadhibou (; ar, نواذيبو, Nwādībū, Berber: Nwadibu, formerly in French: ) is the second largest city in Mauritania and serves as a major commercial centre. The city itself has about 118,000 inhabitants expanding to over 140,000 in the ...

, Mauritania and Dakar, Senegal and the explosive growth of Nouakchott during the 1970s and 1980s threatened to overwhelm the modest road network connecting Nouakchott and Senegal. The

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

offered an interest-free, 50-year loan of $150 million in the early 1980s to finance construction of a port by the China Road & Bridge Corporation. It imported over 400 workers that had to emplace over 100,000 concrete blocks that each weighed over . The workers had to fight high seas and winds, sandstorms and strong currents along the unprotected coastline roughly southwest of the city. Despite these difficulties, the facilities were completed several months ahead of schedule and the port opened on 17 September 1986.Panzanitta, pp. 223–24 In 2001, Spain announced that it would build an

oil terminal An oil terminal (also called a tank farm, tankfarm, oil installation or oil depot) is an industrial facility for the storage of oil, petroleum and petrochemical Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obt ...

near the port to handle the country's increasing demands. Two years later

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...

said that it would construct of

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities ...

space to handle its own imports and exports through the port.

Capacity and facilities

The port was designed for a capacity of 500,000 deadweight tons (DWT) of cargo a year, but was handling 1,500,000 tons (DWT) by 2009. The main

quay A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (mooring location ...

is long enough to accommodate three ships at once, each of 10,000 DWT. China agreed in 2009 to invest US$282 million in the port, aiming to extend the main quay by over . As of 2011, the

World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...

was investigating funding a new

shipping container A shipping container is a container with strength suitable to withstand shipment, storage, and handling. Shipping containers range from large reusable steel boxes used for intermodal shipments to the ubiquitous corrugated boxes. In the context of ...

facility at the port.

Citations

References

*{{cite book, author=Pazzanita, Anthony G. , title=Historical Dictionary of Mauritania, year=2008, publisher=Scarecrow Press, location=Lanham, Maryland, isbn=978-0-8108-6265-4 Buildings and structures completed in 1986 Ports and harbours in Africa Nouakchott