Towards a reopening of the land border between Senegal and Guinea
Senegalese President Macky Sall and Guinean President Alpha Condé at a previous ECOWAS summit.
(illustrative image) AFP - SIA KAMBOU
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3 min
Conakry had closed its borders with Senegal, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone at the end of last September, just before the presidential election.
Several official sources then mentioned "
security reasons
" and "
possible destabilization operations
" carried out from outside in the electoral context.
The situation was already unblocked with Freetown, it is on the way to becoming so with Dakar, but is not yet relevant with Bissau.
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With our correspondent in Dakar,
Charlotte Idrac
The carriers have been eagerly awaiting it for nine months.
The reopening of the border between Senegal and Guinea is "
imminent
", according to the final statement from ECOWAS, whose 59th summit was held on Saturday, June 19 in Accra.
The organization “
welcomes
” a signed military and technical cooperation agreement “
laying the foundations for the reopening
”.
The result of long negotiations.
At the end of March-beginning of April, the president of the commission of the organization had made the trip to Conakry to "
encourage
" President Alpha Condé to accelerate discussions with Senegal.
What does this agreement contain?
No comment from the Senegalese authorities, who have remained discreet since the announcement of the closure.
But the establishment of "
mixed patrols along the border
" was a request from Conakry, recalls an official Guinean source, which indicates that the text should still be ratified by the parliaments of the two countries.
Read also Guinea: the closure of borders worries voters
It is therefore a new stage, after the normalization of the situation with Sierra Leone, from February.
However, discussions with Guinea-Bissau seem to be blocked.
During the Accra summit, its president attacked his counterpart Alpha Condé directly.
"
The Guinean president did not have the right to close the borders
" with his neighbors.
"
I will never send ministers to sign this type of agreement,
" said Umaro Sissoco Embalo, before being interrupted by the Ghanaian Nana Akufo Addo, current president of ECOWAS.
Read also Senegal-Guinea: traders warn about the prolonged closure of the border
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