The vice president, who recently went on a work visit to Senegal, said: “There are border issues between the two countries and that is one of the reasons we actually focus on the issue of Senegalo Gambia permanent secretariat because that is the body tasked by the two countries to actually manage the border.”
He added: “There is supposed to be a joint border commission. Each country has their border commission and the Senegalo-Gambia permanent secretariat is tasked to chair the two commissions together.”
In terms of defence, there is joint border patrol to ensure that there is no intrusion in either side of the border.
There has been this discussion about the border for a very long time and the Ministry of lands was able to come out with the map that was created by the French and the British dating back to 1965, “which is now in possession” of the Gambian authorities, he stated.
He emphasised that the demarcation of the border between the two countries would be carried out by the Senegalo-Gambia Confederation to avoid conflicts in the future.
The discussions also touched on hot pursuits, he said, adding: “And the Senegalese side raised their concerns and the Gambian side also gave their responses.
“One of the problems we encounter is implementation of the hot pursuit. The hot pursuit agreement says that if somebody commits a crime, the one side can pursue up to a distance of five kilometers and then the other side can take over from there.
“What has been happening is most times when the Senegalese pursue they do not inform the Gambian authorities. However, our meeting clarifies this and hopefully we will have less issue going forward.”
He also stated that the working visit was also to strengthen the existing relationship between the two countries and to further address challenges in the implementation of bilateral agreements.
He added that the visit focused on defence and security, fisheries, Senegalo-Gambia permanent secretariat, economic, commercial and investment forums.
Thus, he said the outcome of the visit included agreement to implement bilateral agreements through the Senegalo-Gambia permanent secretariat, ensuring the effective functioning of the Senegalo-Gambia permanent secretariat, institutionalisation of the economic, commercial and investment forum, incorporation of the Gambia in the proposed regional compact, Joint border patrol, reinforcement of joint unity committee, and joint defence committee.
