What countries speak what language?
English and French, no worries. My wife Lorraine Hildebert is French national and happy to deal with the French speaking countries.
Do we need Visas for all countries?
Any ideas on cost and time to received one?

It depends. The only Visa we needed for the Dakar was Mauritania - and that was a case of just turn up at the Embassy (London or Berlin only, IIRC) with photos, passports and - most importantly - cash!

English & French will see you through most of North Africa, I think.

is the raid planning to go through mauritania?

No decision made yet regarding route. We need so many informations before we can nail down the route.
Any problems with Mauritania?

It wouldn't be top of my list of "Must return!" tourist destinations, have to admit... The lass in the London embassy wasn't Mauritanian (She was Algerian, IIRC), had never been and couldn't understand why anybody would want to go.

It's bloody HUGE, though, and difficult to avoid if you're planning anything round that area.

Terrorists.

Paris-Dakar?

Well, if they WILL turn up in one of the poorest countries on earth waving a metric truckload of money about, but not actually giving ANY of it to the locals, since they just ship EVERYTHING in and out, what do they expect, really?

On the subject of terrorists. A friend of mine was on a trip in that part of Africa with a group of Italians (he had an Italian wife) and they were held up by a Hilux utility with a number of men with AK47's. He was very worried when the men were separated from the women, but it all ended up OK as all they wanted was money. My friend has a quick mind when in awkward situations, and realised that money for the robbers meant Central African Francs (the local currency). Many of the others willingly handed over US dollars, Euros etc, losing quite a bit of money, but the robbers were most interested in my mates local currency! He got out quite cheaply. The robbers had probably never travelled outside their country, so US dollars and Euros were of unknown value and use to them. When in Rome...

Daffy duck

some french tourists got terroeristed whilst going overland i read an artical in a l*and rover mag a while ago cant remember the outcome though i have a feeling it was bad

Southern Algeria a problem with kidnapping there was a Taureg uprising, which is a pretty regular occurance i bielieve. This has been added to by Islamic fundimentalists stirring up against the generally secular incumbents.

visas not sure try the links to the forums i posted elswhere
you also need a Carnet du Passage for many countries whereby the organiser has to put up the cost of the vehicles ....originally to stop 4x4s being spirited into the country to supply groups that were opposed to the powers that be.

English more importantly French and a good knowledge of football!

Sean