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NGOs denounce Senegal-Gambia Border Blockade
Monday, 02 May 2011 22:31
(Jollofnews) - For the first time in the on-going month long transport border blockage voices are heard talking about the issue
that is splitting Gambia and Senegal apart.Meeting in the Gambian capital, Banjul, representatives of over forty Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Civil Society Organizations (CSO) denounced Senegalese Transport Unions on the “current blockade at the Senegal-Gambia borders, restricting Gambian vehicles entry into Senegal and the other way round.
In a resolution, issued on April 30, 2011 at the end of their conclave in Banjul on “Human Rights Approach in the Regional Integration Process in West Africa”, jointly organized by Senegal’s national human rights body (Organisation Nationale des Droits Humains, ONDH) and the European Union (EU), the participants “request the two Heads of State to meet immediately to discuss the issue of the border blockade, which infringes on the protocol on the free movement of people and goods signed by both states and which has created unnecessary hardships for the citizens and cross-border economic operators of Senegal and The Gambia”.
The resolution carried by ONDH also pointed out the “efforts of both governments geared towards finding a final peaceful solution.”
Abdoul Aziz Badiane, President of the Senegalese Human Rights watchdog ONDH, disclosed to Jollofnews that he was forced to leave his vehicle at Karang the border post (Centre-South of Senegal) while coming to Gambia. “Specific measures must be taken in order to solve this crisis,” said the rights activist who helped draft the resolution.
The whole issue culminated in the Yellintenda-Babatenda ferry crossing in Gambia’s Lower River Region (LRR) mainly used by Senegalese transporters to link northern and southern Senegal. “After a Senegalese truck loaded with goods sunk into river Gambia, transport unionists in Senegal decided to impose a border blockade on Gambia,” the Secretary General of the Gambia Workers Union (GWU) Ebrima Garba Cham told Jollofnews.
He expressed his suspicions about the issue “being extremely politicized by some transport unionists in Senegal”.
Some analysts in Gambia suggest that the main cause of this problem revolves around the discovery of 13 containers loaded with arms in Nigeria allegedly destined to the rebels in Casamance. In other words, the Senegalese transport unionists are being instrumental in order to put pressure on Gambia.
Even the meeting between Senegalese Foreign Affairs Minister and his Gambian counterpart in Banjul this weekend is yet to bear its fruits. Nothing that transpired at this meeting can be divulged...
Written by JollofNews Staff Writer
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