Following the shaky relations between The Gambia and Senegal which was heightened by the recent border impasse, Senegal’s President Macky Sall has said he is still not sure if Gambia’s President Yahya Jammeh will attend the 49th summit of Heads of State and Governments of ECOWAS which is due to take place on Saturday, June 4 2016 in Dakar, Senegal.
The African leaders are currently gathering in the Senegalese capital, Dakr for the summit to discuss regional issues key amongst which is the issue of adoption of new measures against terrorism, regional peace and security, election violence, election of new chairman of the commission as well as the Gambia-Senegal border crisis.
President Sall told the French-based RFI Radio during an interview on Thursday in Paris that Gambia’s President Jammeh should attend the summit as it is a sub-regional issue and not a Senegal issue.
“Even if he has disagreements with the president of Senegal, it is still his responsibility as President of the Islamic Republic of The Gambia to respect the sub-regional bloc, ECOWAS and to attend the summit. If he does not come, it’s also his right but I think certainly that if he comes, we will have more time to talk as we did in Istanbul, Turkey during the recent OIC summit in April 2016” Sall said.
He said as neighbours, problems are inevitable but always important for the two leaders sometimes to sit face-to-face and make frank talks and trash things out especially on occasions like the ECOWAS Summit.
Over the years, the two countries have suffered from fractured relationship with Gambia’s President Jammeh always blame as the cause of the problems.
Four months ago, Jammeh unilaterally increased the tariff on Senegalese vehicles crossing into The Gambia to an exorbitant amount. It led to the boycott of the Senegalese transport unions and the closure of the borders for almost three months.
On May 15, negotiations were held in Dakar, though there was no concession reach on the several points demanded by Senegal before its side of the border was open. There was no official communiqué as to what was agreed but few days after the negotiation, both countries opened their borders.
By Alhagie Jobe
