Gambia has filed a complaint against Senegal to the regional bloc court over the closure of its land border month ago.
A leading Senegalese daily Le Quotidien on April 2, 2016 reported that Gambia’s complaint was filed on Friday.
Gambia accuses Senegal of violating the regional bloc’s, Ecowas, principle of free movement of people and goods.
Gambia claimed that Senegal was crippling its economic through high cost of basic commodities.
The closure of the border was seriously affecting the economic activities in Gambia, which relies heavily on imports from Senegal.
The regional court has responded to the complaint, promising to dispatch investigators to hear the Senegalese party.
Gambia’s decision to sue Senegal followed failure of an official Gambian delegation on Thursday in Dakar to convince the Senegalese government to lift the blockade.
The latest border closure followed new tariff of $500 the Gambian government imposed on February 11, 2016 on all Senegal’s commercial trucks entering the country.
The Senegalese transport union describes the levy as “unrealistic and too expensive”.
The Union then banned the entry of Senegalese commercial vehicles into the Gambia and a similar measure on Gambian commercial vehicles.
Since then, Senegalese commercial trucks have been bypassing the Gambia ferry crossing to drive around and the long way to enter the southern Casamance region of the country.
Gambia earns thousands of dollars daily from Senegalese vehicle drivers who pay to the Gambia ferries authority to cross them to the southern part of Senegal.
Story culled from Africa Review
