In Senegal, the maritime link between Dakar and Casamance should resume by the Eid holiday after more than nine months of shutdown, according to officials. The rotations were stopped following the violent riots in early June. The region, very landlocked, felt even more cut off from the rest of the country and, for several months, economic players have denounced this suspension.
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With our correspondent in Dakar, Juliette Dubois
“ Anyone who wants to go to Casamance for the Korité festival will be able to borrow Aline Sitoe Diatta and the entire available fleet “. This is a promise from the director of the port of Dakar and the resumption should therefore be imminent, by April 10 or 11. According to him and the operating company Cosama, all conditions are met to restart maritime rotations. A boat arrived on Sunday March 31 in Ziguinchor for a safety test trip, necessary after more than nine months of shutdown.
At the mouth of the Casamance River, several areas were at risk of silting but corrections have been made, according to the authorities.
Navigation had been stopped, following the demonstrations which shook the Senegal during the conviction of the opponent and mayor of Ziguinchor, Ousmane Sonko, in June 2023. The authorities had put forward security reasons.
The recovery will be a relief in Casamance where the population and economic players have been waiting for it for many months. Many agricultural producers and fishermen normally sell their products to Dakar by boat. They then saw their costs explode, forced to take the road.
However, Xavier Diatta, an economic operator in the region who initiated a petition in the fall for the resumption of the link, remains suspicious. “ I’ll only believe it when I see it “, he explains. He fears an announcement effect to make “ sweet eyes » to the new president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye and his right-hand man, Ousmane Sonko.
Read alsoSenegal: an online petition for the reopening of the Dakar-Ziguinchor maritime line