Senior
government officials are currently in Dakar, Senegal to meet the Senegalese
authorities for border crisis talks, a government source has confirmed to The
Point.
The
delegation includes Dr. Mamadou Tangara, Foreign Affairs minister, Mohamed D.S.
Jallow, the secretary general and the head of the Civil Service, Bai Lamin
Jobe, minister of Works, Lamin Jobe Minister of Trade and Yankuba Sonko, minister
of Interior.
It
could be recalled that recently a Gambia Transport Service Corporation (GTSC)
bus was refused entry from Senegal at the Karang border. Also, few weeks
earlier, another Gambian bus was attacked leading to injuries of some
passengers who had to return to Gambian territory.
Meanwhile,
The Gambia Transport Union (GTU) at a press conference last week threatened to
impose a ban on all Senegalese commercial vehicles in retaliation for the twin
incidents.
The
president of the GTU was quoted as saying “Effective 19 February no Senegalese
commercial vehicle will be allowed to enter The Gambia. And we do not care
whether the vehicle is on transit or not. All we are doing is to also protect
our interest as a country. So the transport union in partnership with the
drivers and vehicle owners starting from Wednesday 19 February 2020 will put
stop to all Senegalese commercial vehicles entering the Gambia.”
However,
before any action, the government asked them to halt implementing their
decision as they were sending a delegation to Senegal for the border crisis
talk.
