Senegal: customs harassment at the border with Gambia
Audio 01:24
The bridge between Senegal and Gambia was inaugurated on January 21, 2019. (illustration image) Guillaume Thibault / RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
Relations between The Gambia and Senegal have been very close since Gambian President Adama Barrow came to power.
A bridge which connects the north and the south of Senegal by crossing the Gambia was inaugurated in early 2019. It facilitated trade, and the crossing of the Gambian enclave, but Senegalese carriers and passengers still deplore the hassle at the border. .
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With our special correspondent in Keur Ayib
,
Charlotte Idrac
It's time for a break for Abdoulaye Guèye, in front of the television at the Keur Ayib bus station, north of the border with The Gambia.
This "7 seater" vehicle driver regularly travels between Kolda in Casamance in southern Senegal, and Kaolack, on the other side of Gambia, nearly 300 kilometers.
The Senegambian bridge changed his life but the trip is too expensive.
“
The bridge is a good thing, it really makes transportation easier for us.
Before, you had to take the ferry, and wait for hours but the problem is the cost: 2,500 francs at the toll (Editor's note: a little less than 4 euros), to drive 5 minutes on the bridge, not counting the taxes "unofficial", on the Trans-Gambian route.
Each time you are asked for 300, 500, it's too expensive.
"
1,000, 2,000, even 5,000 CFA francs.
Variable "taxes" levied - without receipts - for transit.
Passengers and carriers have no choice to cross.
For Aliou Cissé, vice-president of the Keur Ayib bus station, things have to change.
“
There are unofficial crossings and you pay, whether it's a police station, customs, and so on.
So, the ECOWAS of peoples, the ECOWAS of free movement, it's just a speech.
"
During the last ECOWAS summit in late January, the organization called on its members to effectively respect free movement in the sub-region.
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Senegal
Gambia