The American rapper of Senegalese origin Akon officially started this pharaonic project on August 31 in Mbodiène, one hundred km south of Dakar. Goal: to get an “African city of the future” out of the ground, ecological, with bold architecture, hotels, a business center, a hospital … Total estimated cost: 6 billion dollars. Work on the first phase would begin in the first quarter of 2021. But so far nothing has been done. The residents of the area are wondering.
With our special correspondent from Mbodiène, Charlotte idrac
The first stone, asked almost 9 months ago, is still there. But nothing more on the site. No jobs or workers. Only nomadic shepherds settled nearby. The head of the village of Mbodiène, Michel Diome, was enthusiastic about the project. Today he is waiting for something concrete. “We laid the foundation stone and so far we have no information, nothing at all. It is a promise we are waiting for. “
Jean Marie Diouf sits in the shadows of his courtyard and is also awaiting compensation for his land handed over to SAPCO, the state community for the development and marketing of Senegal’s coasts and tourist areas. “I had my field of hut acres that I cultivated and they offered me 972,000 francs. And so far we are chasing them. We did not get a franc. ”
From the launch of the project, the Civil Forum – the Senegalese part of Transparency International – asked for clarification. “This is an area where there are so many land conflicts, that it was absolutely necessary that the initiators, but also that the state paid attention, points out the coordinator of the civil forum, Birahim Seck. We have not received any information about the financial package, shareholding, terms of sale … ”
When will the work begin? How about compensation? Neither the Ministry of Tourism nor the producer Mbacké Dioum participated in Akon City project did not respond to our requests for clarification.
.
