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Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
The Falémé, a tributary of the Senegal River, forms the border between Senegal and Mali.
- Author, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
- Role, For BBC Africa
-
In the past, the border between Senegal and Mali was a source of life. The Falémé, which stretches over 650 kilometers between the two countries, supplied water and fish to the villages along its banks. In the rainy season, the populations practiced market gardening and agriculture. During the dry months, they turned to small-scale artisanal gold panning, equipped with basins and gourds.
“The water is polluted”
But the expansion of gold mining in the region has turned the daily lives of local residents upside down. In the Saraya area, in southeastern Senegal, the gold rush begins at sunrise. On motorcycles, tricycles, and sometimes even on bicycles, young men cross the sandy paths of the savannah landscapes. Equipped with simple shovels, spades and seals, they sometimes come from afar to try to find the nugget of a better future. Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso…the Kédougou region now brings together more than 20 nationalities. And sees its environment deteriorate.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
On the Bantaco mine, thousands of gold miners are busy every day, from all over West Africa.
Souleymane Keita remembers with nostalgia a time when “the water of Falémé was drinkable” and “produced a lot of fish”. The young teacher, from the border village of Sansamba, accuses foreign companies and part of the local population of polluting the river through gold panning that is disrespectful of the environment. “The population lives in agony. The water is polluted, there is cyanide, mercury, and it can even impact our drilling at groundwater level,” he laments.
Asset or vulnerability factor?
Gold panning certainly represents an economic asset for the populations of the area. The activity generates tens of thousands of jobs, and a potential gain that exceeds income from subsistence farming.
“This money allows communities to meet their basic needs, and to some extent there is an improvement in their living conditions,” says Paulin Maurice Toupane, researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) at Dakar.
“But gold panning also has enormous consequences on the environment, the health of the actors and on the social level. In the medium and short term, if measures are not taken to try to limit the consequences, the trend will be reversed. Instead of gold panning being an opportunity, it will become a factor of vulnerability for these communities living in gold-bearing areas,” he warns.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
Women sort stones at the Bantaco mine.
Health threats
Several studies have already revealed the presence of heavy metals in the ecosystems of the Kédougou region, the epicenter of gold panning in Senegal. Scientific analyzes carried out around the Bantaco mine in 2021 reported a significant presence of mercury, lead and cadmium in well and city water.
“We found levels up to 300 times higher than the doses recommended by the WHO,” explains Dr. Fode Danfakha, who until recently was district chief doctor in Kédougou. He also evokes a dangerous presence of heavy metals in the organism of the 16 people and 21 sheep suffering from neurological disorders and having been the subject of samples.
For Falémé, few figures are available. However, the stakes are high: it is the main tributary of the Senegal River, the second largest river in West Africa.
According to a sample taken by the BBC, and analyzed in a laboratory in Dakar, the mercury concentration in Falémé would be more than twice the Senegalese standard. With regard to cyanide, the analysis techniques are complex, expensive and difficult to access in Senegal. But its use is common in gold mining.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
By mixing the mercury in these basins, the miners can extract the gold more easily.
“Today with the cyanide spilled there, we can no longer practice these economic activities, which will make the populations even poorer”, regrets Commander Mamadou Gaye, regional inspector of Water and Forests of Tambacounda.
Beyond scientific studies, the opaque and orange appearance as well as health problems had long since diverted people from its use.
“Before, we used to say that water has no color. But when you ask our children, they will say that the water in the river only has one color. It’s red twelve months out of twelve, ”regrets Souleymane Keita. The neighboring villages now depend on borehole water, which they sometimes have to transport from other localities.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
A Bantaco miner extracts gold using an artisanal process.
Awareness?
The pollution of the Falémé is well known to the government. During a speech in Tambacounda in December 2022, Senegalese President Macky Sall even castigated “the dumping of cyanide and mercury” in Falémé by users “driven by the search for easy gain”. The Ministry of Mines evokes a project so that “the exploitation of gold is carried out without using these harmful substances” via in particular “gravimetry techniques”. In addition, Senegal and Mali “are in the process of finding a solution to limit exploitation on the site” of the Falémé, assures Lamine Diouf, the director of control and mining operations within the Ministry.
But, at the level of the villages, the inhabitants feel neglected. “This brave population fights every day to have a better life. People are not coming to support,” castigates Souleymane Keita, who is a member of the Association of Young People for the Protection and Development of Falémé (AJPDF).
“When you talk about the Senegal side, you also have to do the same thing on the Mali side, and bringing people together is a difficulty. At the level of the authorities, we do not feel supported in this sense, ”he continues.
The defense and security forces would have been responsible for tackling the Falémé problem head-on. However, the extent of the border area, its lack of accessibility, and the many other traffic problems in the region are all obstacles to the implementation of these measures.
“It’s an ecological disaster,” laments Commander Mamadou Gaye.
“We try to use repression to arrest people who are doing these activities and bring them to justice, but it’s not enough. The problem has reached a level where it takes very strong measures to clean up the river definitively and follow up with repressive measures,” he continues.
“The other aspect that makes the job difficult is that the river is shared between Senegal and Mali, so if people exploit at the level of Mali, it will be worth nothing, the water has no border”.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
A bucket filled with stones from the Bantaco mine.
An opaque activity
On site, the police are reluctant to have journalists present. The police and the local authorities evoke security risks and ask for prior authorizations to go to the neighboring villages. Our report was cut short, and the Saraya gendarmerie took a statement.
There are no official figures listing the informal and semi-artisanal sites along the Falémé. According to Paulin Maurice Toupane, there are more than 200 informal sites throughout the region. Numbers that could be much higher. Around Falémé, residents denounce opaque grants, sometimes involving Chinese nationals. Dredging on the river bed would also contribute to its destruction, according to several members of the AJPDF.
“They use a machine to dive into the water and dig, look for gold,” explains Souleymane Keita. “It makes holes which represent a danger for the populations, for the children. »
For his part, Kama Dansokho deplores the presence of irregular sites and operators “who do not have all the papers”.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but we let them work, which isn’t good,” he sighs.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
The village of Sansamba is located on the banks of the Falémé.
A farmer from Sansamba, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, says he has lost ¾ of his agricultural area due to the spread of gold panning sites. A loss of yields which impacts the economic situation of his family. As for gold panning sites left abandoned after extraction, they require significant resources to be rehabilitated. “We can no longer cultivate them, because the soil is no longer fertile”, explains the farmer.
Fishing, widely practiced in the rivers in Senegal, has become non-existent on the Falémé for a large part of the year. The number of fish in the river began to decrease in the 2010s, the start of the gold rush. But, “for 5 or 6 years, there have been no more fish”, laments Kama Dansokho. “For now, people are managing, but in 10 years, nothing will work in the Kédougou region, whether it’s agriculture or fishing,” he warns.
Security challenges
A precariousness that reinforces security concerns. Because the expansion of extremist groups in Mali raises fears of an arrival on Senegalese soil. A risk accentuated by the attractiveness of gold panning sites and idle youth. A report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) published in February indicated that “the hope of finding a job is the main driver of recruitment” of armed groups.
If for the time being, crime in the region is mainly limited to trafficking, banditry and other highway robbers, the Senegalese State is already taking preventive measures to reduce the terrorist threat and preserve the “Senegalese exception “.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
The Bantaco mine in the Kédougou region.
Since 2016, the State has invested 32 billion CFA francs in an Emergency Program for the Modernization of Border Axes and Territories (PUMA), in order to create jobs and strengthen infrastructure. In terms of security, “there is a policy for setting up units at the national level. Particularly in the sensitive border areas, there is the territorial network which is real, and which is still developing”, indicates Brigadier General Wagane Faye, consultant for the NGO Partners West Africa.
Around Falémé, the Malian and Senegalese populations have lived side by side for generations and share cultural identities. But recent tensions, linked in particular to gold mining in Falémé, remind us that the destruction of the environment and the hunting for resources can be precursors of violence.
“Each time there are excessive forest cuts, the rainfall will also gradually decrease. And when it decreases; it will cause poverty. As soon as poverty sets in in an environment, banditry is to be expected. And banditry is what ends up in what is called terrorism,” worries Kama Dansokho.
His association regularly organizes awareness sessions, but also days of reforestation and dialogue with the populations to “wake them up to the meaning of nature”. But their means of action remain limited. “It is no longer the population that is the problem, there are now other people who are more powerful than us, whom we cannot even address,” says Souleymane Keita. “The youth is engaged and the community is engaged. We are appealing to all people of good will and to both States, to save this river which has seen us grow,” he concludes.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
The Falémé, a tributary of the Senegal River, forms the border between Senegal and Mali.
- Author, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
- Role, For BBC Africa
-
In the past, the border between Senegal and Mali was a source of life. The Falémé, which stretches over 650 kilometers between the two countries, supplied water and fish to the villages along its banks. In the rainy season, the populations practiced market gardening and agriculture. During the dry months, they turned to small-scale artisanal gold panning, equipped with basins and gourds.
“The water is polluted”
But the expansion of gold mining in the region has turned the daily lives of local residents upside down. In the Saraya area, in southeastern Senegal, the gold rush begins at sunrise. On motorcycles, tricycles, and sometimes even on bicycles, young men cross the sandy paths of the savannah landscapes. Equipped with simple shovels, spades and seals, they sometimes come from afar to try to find the nugget of a better future. Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso…the Kédougou region now brings together more than 20 nationalities. And sees its environment deteriorate.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
On the Bantaco mine, thousands of gold miners are busy every day, from all over West Africa.
Souleymane Keita remembers with nostalgia a time when “the water of Falémé was drinkable” and “produced a lot of fish”. The young teacher, from the border village of Sansamba, accuses foreign companies and part of the local population of polluting the river through gold panning that is disrespectful of the environment. “The population lives in agony. The water is polluted, there is cyanide, mercury, and it can even impact our drilling at groundwater level,” he laments.
Asset or vulnerability factor?
Gold panning certainly represents an economic asset for the populations of the area. The activity generates tens of thousands of jobs, and a potential gain that exceeds income from subsistence farming.
“This money allows communities to meet their basic needs, and to some extent there is an improvement in their living conditions,” says Paulin Maurice Toupane, researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) at Dakar.
“But gold panning also has enormous consequences on the environment, the health of the actors and on the social level. In the medium and short term, if measures are not taken to try to limit the consequences, the trend will be reversed. Instead of gold panning being an opportunity, it will become a factor of vulnerability for these communities living in gold-bearing areas,” he warns.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
Women sort stones at the Bantaco mine.
Health threats
Several studies have already revealed the presence of heavy metals in the ecosystems of the Kédougou region, the epicenter of gold panning in Senegal. Scientific analyzes carried out around the Bantaco mine in 2021 reported a significant presence of mercury, lead and cadmium in well and city water.
“We found levels up to 300 times higher than the doses recommended by the WHO,” explains Dr. Fode Danfakha, who until recently was district chief doctor in Kédougou. He also evokes a dangerous presence of heavy metals in the organism of the 16 people and 21 sheep suffering from neurological disorders and having been the subject of samples.
For Falémé, few figures are available. However, the stakes are high: it is the main tributary of the Senegal River, the second largest river in West Africa.
According to a sample taken by the BBC, and analyzed in a laboratory in Dakar, the mercury concentration in Falémé would be more than twice the Senegalese standard. With regard to cyanide, the analysis techniques are complex, expensive and difficult to access in Senegal. But its use is common in gold mining.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
By mixing the mercury in these basins, the miners can extract the gold more easily.
“Today with the cyanide spilled there, we can no longer practice these economic activities, which will make the populations even poorer”, regrets Commander Mamadou Gaye, regional inspector of Water and Forests of Tambacounda.
Beyond scientific studies, the opaque and orange appearance as well as health problems had long since diverted people from its use.
“Before, we used to say that water has no color. But when you ask our children, they will say that the water in the river only has one color. It’s red twelve months out of twelve, ”regrets Souleymane Keita. The neighboring villages now depend on borehole water, which they sometimes have to transport from other localities.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
A Bantaco miner extracts gold using an artisanal process.
Awareness?
The pollution of the Falémé is well known to the government. During a speech in Tambacounda in December 2022, Senegalese President Macky Sall even castigated “the dumping of cyanide and mercury” in Falémé by users “driven by the search for easy gain”. The Ministry of Mines evokes a project so that “the exploitation of gold is carried out without using these harmful substances” via in particular “gravimetry techniques”. In addition, Senegal and Mali “are in the process of finding a solution to limit exploitation on the site” of the Falémé, assures Lamine Diouf, the director of control and mining operations within the Ministry.
But, at the level of the villages, the inhabitants feel neglected. “This brave population fights every day to have a better life. People are not coming to support,” castigates Souleymane Keita, who is a member of the Association of Young People for the Protection and Development of Falémé (AJPDF).
“When you talk about the Senegal side, you also have to do the same thing on the Mali side, and bringing people together is a difficulty. At the level of the authorities, we do not feel supported in this sense, ”he continues.
The defense and security forces would have been responsible for tackling the Falémé problem head-on. However, the extent of the border area, its lack of accessibility, and the many other traffic problems in the region are all obstacles to the implementation of these measures.
“It’s an ecological disaster,” laments Commander Mamadou Gaye.
“We try to use repression to arrest people who are doing these activities and bring them to justice, but it’s not enough. The problem has reached a level where it takes very strong measures to clean up the river definitively and follow up with repressive measures,” he continues.
“The other aspect that makes the job difficult is that the river is shared between Senegal and Mali, so if people exploit at the level of Mali, it will be worth nothing, the water has no border”.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
A bucket filled with stones from the Bantaco mine.
An opaque activity
On site, the police are reluctant to have journalists present. The police and the local authorities evoke security risks and ask for prior authorizations to go to the neighboring villages. Our report was cut short, and the Saraya gendarmerie took a statement.
There are no official figures listing the informal and semi-artisanal sites along the Falémé. According to Paulin Maurice Toupane, there are more than 200 informal sites throughout the region. Numbers that could be much higher. Around Falémé, residents denounce opaque grants, sometimes involving Chinese nationals. Dredging on the river bed would also contribute to its destruction, according to several members of the AJPDF.
“They use a machine to dive into the water and dig, look for gold,” explains Souleymane Keita. “It makes holes which represent a danger for the populations, for the children. »
For his part, Kama Dansokho deplores the presence of irregular sites and operators “who do not have all the papers”.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but we let them work, which isn’t good,” he sighs.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
The village of Sansamba is located on the banks of the Falémé.
A farmer from Sansamba, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, says he has lost ¾ of his agricultural area due to the spread of gold panning sites. A loss of yields which impacts the economic situation of his family. As for gold panning sites left abandoned after extraction, they require significant resources to be rehabilitated. “We can no longer cultivate them, because the soil is no longer fertile”, explains the farmer.
Fishing, widely practiced in the rivers in Senegal, has become non-existent on the Falémé for a large part of the year. The number of fish in the river began to decrease in the 2010s, the start of the gold rush. But, “for 5 or 6 years, there have been no more fish”, laments Kama Dansokho. “For now, people are managing, but in 10 years, nothing will work in the Kédougou region, whether it’s agriculture or fishing,” he warns.
Security challenges
A precariousness that reinforces security concerns. Because the expansion of extremist groups in Mali raises fears of an arrival on Senegalese soil. A risk accentuated by the attractiveness of gold panning sites and idle youth. A report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) published in February indicated that “the hope of finding a job is the main driver of recruitment” of armed groups.
If for the time being, crime in the region is mainly limited to trafficking, banditry and other highway robbers, the Senegalese State is already taking preventive measures to reduce the terrorist threat and preserve the “Senegalese exception “.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
The Bantaco mine in the Kédougou region.
Since 2016, the State has invested 32 billion CFA francs in an Emergency Program for the Modernization of Border Axes and Territories (PUMA), in order to create jobs and strengthen infrastructure. In terms of security, “there is a policy for setting up units at the national level. Particularly in the sensitive border areas, there is the territorial network which is real, and which is still developing”, indicates Brigadier General Wagane Faye, consultant for the NGO Partners West Africa.
Around Falémé, the Malian and Senegalese populations have lived side by side for generations and share cultural identities. But recent tensions, linked in particular to gold mining in Falémé, remind us that the destruction of the environment and the hunting for resources can be precursors of violence.
“Each time there are excessive forest cuts, the rainfall will also gradually decrease. And when it decreases; it will cause poverty. As soon as poverty sets in in an environment, banditry is to be expected. And banditry is what ends up in what is called terrorism,” worries Kama Dansokho.
His association regularly organizes awareness sessions, but also days of reforestation and dialogue with the populations to “wake them up to the meaning of nature”. But their means of action remain limited. “It is no longer the population that is the problem, there are now other people who are more powerful than us, whom we cannot even address,” says Souleymane Keita. “The youth is engaged and the community is engaged. We are appealing to all people of good will and to both States, to save this river which has seen us grow,” he concludes.
Write an outro for the article
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
The Falémé, a tributary of the Senegal River, forms the border between Senegal and Mali.
- Author, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
- Role, For BBC Africa
-
In the past, the border between Senegal and Mali was a source of life. The Falémé, which stretches over 650 kilometers between the two countries, supplied water and fish to the villages along its banks. In the rainy season, the populations practiced market gardening and agriculture. During the dry months, they turned to small-scale artisanal gold panning, equipped with basins and gourds.
“The water is polluted”
But the expansion of gold mining in the region has turned the daily lives of local residents upside down. In the Saraya area, in southeastern Senegal, the gold rush begins at sunrise. On motorcycles, tricycles, and sometimes even on bicycles, young men cross the sandy paths of the savannah landscapes. Equipped with simple shovels, spades and seals, they sometimes come from afar to try to find the nugget of a better future. Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso…the Kédougou region now brings together more than 20 nationalities. And sees its environment deteriorate.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
On the Bantaco mine, thousands of gold miners are busy every day, from all over West Africa.
Souleymane Keita remembers with nostalgia a time when “the water of Falémé was drinkable” and “produced a lot of fish”. The young teacher, from the border village of Sansamba, accuses foreign companies and part of the local population of polluting the river through gold panning that is disrespectful of the environment. “The population lives in agony. The water is polluted, there is cyanide, mercury, and it can even impact our drilling at groundwater level,” he laments.
Asset or vulnerability factor?
Gold panning certainly represents an economic asset for the populations of the area. The activity generates tens of thousands of jobs, and a potential gain that exceeds income from subsistence farming.
“This money allows communities to meet their basic needs, and to some extent there is an improvement in their living conditions,” says Paulin Maurice Toupane, researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) at Dakar.
“But gold panning also has enormous consequences on the environment, the health of the actors and on the social level. In the medium and short term, if measures are not taken to try to limit the consequences, the trend will be reversed. Instead of gold panning being an opportunity, it will become a factor of vulnerability for these communities living in gold-bearing areas,” he warns.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
Women sort stones at the Bantaco mine.
Health threats
Several studies have already revealed the presence of heavy metals in the ecosystems of the Kédougou region, the epicenter of gold panning in Senegal. Scientific analyzes carried out around the Bantaco mine in 2021 reported a significant presence of mercury, lead and cadmium in well and city water.
“We found levels up to 300 times higher than the doses recommended by the WHO,” explains Dr. Fode Danfakha, who until recently was district chief doctor in Kédougou. He also evokes a dangerous presence of heavy metals in the organism of the 16 people and 21 sheep suffering from neurological disorders and having been the subject of samples.
For Falémé, few figures are available. However, the stakes are high: it is the main tributary of the Senegal River, the second largest river in West Africa.
According to a sample taken by the BBC, and analyzed in a laboratory in Dakar, the mercury concentration in Falémé would be more than twice the Senegalese standard. With regard to cyanide, the analysis techniques are complex, expensive and difficult to access in Senegal. But its use is common in gold mining.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
By mixing the mercury in these basins, the miners can extract the gold more easily.
“Today with the cyanide spilled there, we can no longer practice these economic activities, which will make the populations even poorer”, regrets Commander Mamadou Gaye, regional inspector of Water and Forests of Tambacounda.
Beyond scientific studies, the opaque and orange appearance as well as health problems had long since diverted people from its use.
“Before, we used to say that water has no color. But when you ask our children, they will say that the water in the river only has one color. It’s red twelve months out of twelve, ”regrets Souleymane Keita. The neighboring villages now depend on borehole water, which they sometimes have to transport from other localities.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
A Bantaco miner extracts gold using an artisanal process.
Awareness?
The pollution of the Falémé is well known to the government. During a speech in Tambacounda in December 2022, Senegalese President Macky Sall even castigated “the dumping of cyanide and mercury” in Falémé by users “driven by the search for easy gain”. The Ministry of Mines evokes a project so that “the exploitation of gold is carried out without using these harmful substances” via in particular “gravimetry techniques”. In addition, Senegal and Mali “are in the process of finding a solution to limit exploitation on the site” of the Falémé, assures Lamine Diouf, the director of control and mining operations within the Ministry.
But, at the level of the villages, the inhabitants feel neglected. “This brave population fights every day to have a better life. People are not coming to support,” castigates Souleymane Keita, who is a member of the Association of Young People for the Protection and Development of Falémé (AJPDF).
“When you talk about the Senegal side, you also have to do the same thing on the Mali side, and bringing people together is a difficulty. At the level of the authorities, we do not feel supported in this sense, ”he continues.
The defense and security forces would have been responsible for tackling the Falémé problem head-on. However, the extent of the border area, its lack of accessibility, and the many other traffic problems in the region are all obstacles to the implementation of these measures.
“It’s an ecological disaster,” laments Commander Mamadou Gaye.
“We try to use repression to arrest people who are doing these activities and bring them to justice, but it’s not enough. The problem has reached a level where it takes very strong measures to clean up the river definitively and follow up with repressive measures,” he continues.
“The other aspect that makes the job difficult is that the river is shared between Senegal and Mali, so if people exploit at the level of Mali, it will be worth nothing, the water has no border”.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
A bucket filled with stones from the Bantaco mine.
An opaque activity
On site, the police are reluctant to have journalists present. The police and the local authorities evoke security risks and ask for prior authorizations to go to the neighboring villages. Our report was cut short, and the Saraya gendarmerie took a statement.
There are no official figures listing the informal and semi-artisanal sites along the Falémé. According to Paulin Maurice Toupane, there are more than 200 informal sites throughout the region. Numbers that could be much higher. Around Falémé, residents denounce opaque grants, sometimes involving Chinese nationals. Dredging on the river bed would also contribute to its destruction, according to several members of the AJPDF.
“They use a machine to dive into the water and dig, look for gold,” explains Souleymane Keita. “It makes holes which represent a danger for the populations, for the children. »
For his part, Kama Dansokho deplores the presence of irregular sites and operators “who do not have all the papers”.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but we let them work, which isn’t good,” he sighs.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
The village of Sansamba is located on the banks of the Falémé.
A farmer from Sansamba, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, says he has lost ¾ of his agricultural area due to the spread of gold panning sites. A loss of yields which impacts the economic situation of his family. As for gold panning sites left abandoned after extraction, they require significant resources to be rehabilitated. “We can no longer cultivate them, because the soil is no longer fertile”, explains the farmer.
Fishing, widely practiced in the rivers in Senegal, has become non-existent on the Falémé for a large part of the year. The number of fish in the river began to decrease in the 2010s, the start of the gold rush. But, “for 5 or 6 years, there have been no more fish”, laments Kama Dansokho. “For now, people are managing, but in 10 years, nothing will work in the Kédougou region, whether it’s agriculture or fishing,” he warns.
Security challenges
A precariousness that reinforces security concerns. Because the expansion of extremist groups in Mali raises fears of an arrival on Senegalese soil. A risk accentuated by the attractiveness of gold panning sites and idle youth. A report by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) published in February indicated that “the hope of finding a job is the main driver of recruitment” of armed groups.
If for the time being, crime in the region is mainly limited to trafficking, banditry and other highway robbers, the Senegalese State is already taking preventive measures to reduce the terrorist threat and preserve the “Senegalese exception “.
Photo credit, Maria Gerth-Niculescu
The Bantaco mine in the Kédougou region.
Since 2016, the State has invested 32 billion CFA francs in an Emergency Program for the Modernization of Border Axes and Territories (PUMA), in order to create jobs and strengthen infrastructure. In terms of security, “there is a policy for setting up units at the national level. Particularly in the sensitive border areas, there is the territorial network which is real, and which is still developing”, indicates Brigadier General Wagane Faye, consultant for the NGO Partners West Africa.
Around Falémé, the Malian and Senegalese populations have lived side by side for generations and share cultural identities. But recent tensions, linked in particular to gold mining in Falémé, remind us that the destruction of the environment and the hunting for resources can be precursors of violence.
“Each time there are excessive forest cuts, the rainfall will also gradually decrease. And when it decreases; it will cause poverty. As soon as poverty sets in in an environment, banditry is to be expected. And banditry is what ends up in what is called terrorism,” worries Kama Dansokho.
His association regularly organizes awareness sessions, but also days of reforestation and dialogue with the populations to “wake them up to the meaning of nature”. But their means of action remain limited. “It is no longer the population that is the problem, there are now other people who are more powerful than us, whom we cannot even address,” says Souleymane Keita. “The youth is engaged and the community is engaged. We are appealing to all people of good will and to both States, to save this river which has seen us grow,” he concludes.