Moroccans pull back from contested border area:
https://ledesk.ma/2017/02/26/mohamme...-de-guerguerat

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Morocco Overland 4 (2025) • Trans Morocco Trail

Slightly more detail on the above in an English version...

Morocco says forces to withdraw in Western Sahara's Guerguerat standoff | Reuters

Hello,

In Rabat at the moment (Jan 2017) and heading south to Mauri. I thought that I would get my Mauri visa whilst in Rabat to save some time.

A couple of fairly surly and unhelpful gents told me that the visa would cost 1,450 Dh, which I suppose is still the old price.

I politely thanked them and told them that I would rather get the visa at the border for the new price of 55 Euros.

Only thing is, they had got hold of some of the details of my passport which they seemed to enter into the computer. I hope they didn't get pissed off with me and put a notation into the system that will make things difficult later on. Only time will tell.

Just to pick up on this thread, 2 of us on bikes are planning to enter Senegal via Mali to avoid Rosso and Diama. We were heading for Kayes and crossing into Senegal from there. With this Mauri exclusion zone and "high risk" area it puts the Ayoun el Atrous route in doubt. I see on iOverlander there is a crossing at Melgue/Melga but it is not clear what the road is like. Has anyone used that Melgue border crossing recently? Is it viable for 2 guys with basic off-road skills, one on an R1500GS the other on a G650 XCountry? Cheers

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Hi jim
Selibaby-Melgue-Kayes is a flat piste with a few dry river beds to pass
easy in the dry season
roadless land
several nice bambara and peul villages
lovely route
We're going to Casamance next trip and will take this route to avoid Rosso/Diama
enter Senegal at Kenieba

Thanks Priffe, that sounds great. I believe we can manage that OK. I went through Rosso last time, South and North. Going South was the worst and not an experience I want to repeat. This route also takes me into a different area which is great.

We are also heading for the Casamance area this time. Looking forward to it. Thanks again for the info.

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Will you please enlighten me, where; what is Casamance ? I can't see it on my map. Mali, Senegal, Guinea?


Ali.

It's southern Senegal - the part below Gambia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casamance

We got our 2 [Mali] visas at the [Mori-] Mali border going south in early October without issue, for 55€ each. It took about 20 mins, done quite professionally. Only single entry visas available at the border though.

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Hi, I had a quick but maybe unusual question, and was hoping someone here could shed some light on it. Next month I'll be traveling to Nouakchott for work, and I was wondering if immigration officials at the airport have a problem with passengers carrying 2 passports (they're from the same country- I don't have dual citizenship). Due to the amount of travel I have to do that requires visas, I recently obtained a second passport to make the process easier, and on this trip, I'll need to carry both (I'll be arriving from Cameroon, and that visa is in a separate passport than the Mauritanian one). Thanks!

I have 2 for the same reason, but you definitely don't want to announce you are travelling with 2, especially from the same country.
Owning 2 is of course not illegal,l but I think travelling with 2 is, in most places. Arrive and leave on the same passport.
I would have thought it's unlikely they will look for an exit stamp from Cameroon on arrival in RIM.

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Morocco Overland 4 (2025) • Trans Morocco Trail

Hmm- thanks for the feedback. In this case, would it be better to just obtain a visa on arrival at the airport? I really like to get all of the necessary entry paperwork sorted out before I leave, but it seems like that route would be more complicated in this instance.

Was this at the Gogui border?

Thanks for the chance to clarify this, I was referring to the Western Sahara/Muritania border at Guerguerat, not the Mali border. We got our Mali visas at the Mali Embassy in Nouakchott, applied in the morning and had the visas by lunchtime, both of us have Irish passports.

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Two bicycle tourers here. Male with USA passport and female with Spanish Passport. We DID NOT get visas prior to arrival and cannot report on that process, but crossing for us was fairly painless and we had no issues from Western Sahara into Mauritania as of December 27th, 2017. Here is what to expect:

The "No Man's Land" is paved for a short stretch after you clear the Moroccan exit Visa and then gets pretty rough (sandy, rocky), but it is short - less than 1 km and also navigated by plenty of cars and huge 18 wheelers. No danger, No risk and you're through it in 30 minutes or less easy. Plenty of taxis if you are on foot.

Once you get to Mauritanian border buildings know that the cost was 55 euro for each of us (you need euro and if you were stuck without euro you could exchange for it at the border) and once we got into Mauritania it was a three step process that the police guided us through:

1) Cross border after the 1 km No Man's Land stretch and police will lead you to the small little building to the immediate left to write down some information from your passport.
2) They will point you to the building right next to this building where you enter in a lobby/courtyard area and hand your passport into the small room where guys are sitting with computers - this was the longest wait for us - about 45 minutes for our turn to come and then we sat down and they scan your fingerprints and take your photo. This is where we paid, then they printed and stuck the visa into our passport.
3) Lastly, a little further on but in the same border area on the left hand side you need to get the visa stamped. There is another police building, but again you will find it without trouble because you will be asked by police to see your visa and then they will point you to where to get the Stamp. That's it!