NEWS
TEMPERS HIGH ALONG GAMBIA/SENEGAL BORDER, AS BORDER STAND OFF WORSEN

BY OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


October 16, 2005
Tempers are high along The Gambia/Senegalese border, as hundreds of
vehicles and passengers are stranded on the neighbouring border, amidst
Senegal's refusal to allow Gambian vehicles to transit through their
territory The ALLGAMBIAN online Newspaper gathered today.

Trucks loaded with merchandise bound for Mali, Guinea Conakry and Guinea
Bissau are currently stranded in Banjul. The Senegalese transport
unionists insist that from now on commercial vehicles from The Gambia will
not transit through their border, as they accused The Gambian Port and
Immigration officials of imposing what they called exorbitant ferry
tariffs.

Our Banjul correspondent who visited The Gambia/Senegal border says some
of the stranded passengers resorted to walking on foot to get through the
other side of the Senegalese border. Some of the aggrieved passengers who
spoke to The ALLGAMBIAN said they have been stranded along the border for
days. Local transport workers also lamented about the same predicament,
while vowing to organise a show down action if the border crisis remained
unresolved.

Speaking to our reporter on the site, a Senegalese customs official said
the border impasse is likely to go unabated, since according to him The
Gambian authorities were not ready to meet the request of the Senegalese
unionists. "Our union is powerful and we cannot go against what they
decided. We will be more than happy to see Gambians and non-Gambian
vehicles passing through our border. But as the situation appears, we
cannot help in this situation. These vehicles have been stranded here for
the past one week." said the custom official.

In Karang and Amdalai border posts, security men from both countries could
be seen trying to calm down irritate travellers who deplored the current
border stand off.

The ALLGAMBIAN has been reliably informed that the current stand off is
adversely affecting Gambia's Ports Authority revenue collection. It is
reported that the Ports, in recent times had witnessed a dramatic
reduction in its revenue collection. Our sources within the GPA head
quarters in Banjul confirmed the said assertion and warned that if the
situation persists, Port officials might likely down size the staff set
up, adding that "We are realising less money these days. We spent more
money than we get."

It would be recalled that at the beginning of the border impasse, the GPA
was reported to have suffered a revenue loss of over 1.5Million dalasis.
This was attributable to lack of Senegalese customers to patronise
Gambia's ailing sea port transportation network, which appeared to be
crippled following the month long border impasse.

Recent Ramadan transport good will gesture extended to the Senegalese
Community by The Gambian government, who announced to reduce ferry fares
was turned down by the Senegalese transport unionists. Senegalese
transport workers described such gesture as a "joke" and vowed not to
travel through the tiny West African country again. They urged their
colleagues to travel via Tambakunda and not The Gambia. As the situation
appears, the Senegal/Gambia border crisis is growing out of proportion
with this latest development. Senegal vowed not to bow down to Gambia's
request to open their border.



Go To Top

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright © 2004 AllGambian.Net. All Rights Reserved.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]
¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤