Senegal: road carriers on strike to denounce racketeering

Text by: Manon Laplace

Between the high price of fuel, the lack of rest areas and especially the bribes requested during roadside checks, drivers can no longer bear them and demand government guarantees.

Publicity

From our correspondent in Dakar,

This February 19 was the first day of strike for drivers of the Union of road transporters of Senegal. If the count of the number of strikers is still in progress, the union, which has 3000 members, assures it: there will be no resumption of work until their requirements are not met.

Among the twelve complaints presented to the government on February 11, the first concerns road checks deemed to be too numerous and the bribes demanded by the authorities.

" What we have noted is that from a border to the capital, Dakar, there are almost a thousand gendarmes, a thousand police officers and a thousand customs officers ," notes Gora Khouma, the general secretary of the union. So it's just a way of racketeering. I approach, it's 1000 CFA francs [1.50 euro]. You don't give, you're arrested. "

Unfair competition from the informal sector

There is also an insufficient number of rest areas. " The driver who leaves Dakar to go to Rosso or to Bakel [at the Mauritanian border, note] or to the border with Mali, wants to rest and sleep, but we don't have the possibility , he laments. Not only is it untenable, but it is a source of accident. "

These claims are brought by freight carriers as well as by public transport drivers. The latter denounce unfair competition from the informal sector, but also from the national transport company, Dakar Dem Dikk.

First confined to the capital and its suburbs, it extended its network through Senegal in 2017 and now targets border countries. The Ministry of Transport says it is open to discussion with the strikers, but warns that it will take time to find a compromise with the many stakeholders.

► Read also: Senegalese road transporters on strike

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