In Senegal there is a strong Guinean community, the two countries sharing cultural and geographical ties dating back several decades.
The new Senegalese president continues his close visits to West African countries. After Mauritania, Gambia and Ivory Coast, Bassirou Diomaye Faye went to Guinea on the evening of Friday May 24 after spending the day in Praia, Cabo Verde. In Conakry, the 44-year-old head of state made his first visit to a counterpart resulting from a military coup, General Mamadi Doumbouya.
The latter attended his inauguration in Dakar on April 2 with a large delegation.
“ In the pan-African land of Guinea », the “pan-Africanist” and “sovereignist” Senegalese leader spoke at length with the authorities of this country. At the end of the talks this Saturday, the two heads of state indicated, in a joint press release received at APA, that they had “ reviewed issues of common interest at the bilateral, subregional, regional and international levels “.
In Senegal there is a strong Guinean community, the two countries having been linked by cultural and geographical ties for several decades. Presidents Faye and Doumbouya thus recalled the “ need to further strengthen » Senegalese-Guinean cooperation relations in the areas of defense and security, territorial administration, mines, energy, trade, industry, transport, infrastructure, hydrocarbons and any other relevant area.
They deplored the non-holding since 2008 of the sessions of the Large Joint Commission of Cooperation between the two countries and decided, to this end, to organize the sixth session in Conakry during November 2024.
A ” strategic partnership » should also make it possible to strengthen economic and commercial relations between Conakry and Dakar, according to the two heads of state who promise to work together with their peers for the realization of projects and programs within the Organization for the implementation value of the Senegal River (OMVS).
Created in 1972, it brings together four countries: Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal. In recent months, however, Conakry had suspended its participation in the OMVS, complaining of under-representation and a failure to take into account “ its strategic interests “.
In addition to promoting exchanges of experiences and good practices in research and strengthening “partnerships” between the private sectors of their countries, the two authorities had converging points of view on the subject of border management. They notably “ appreciated the progress made in the process of delimitation and demarcation of the border line between » Senegal and Guinea. They gave instructions to “ the consensual and definitive materialization of the common border, in the interest of the neighboring populations of the two countries “.
In terms of security, the Senegalese and the Guinean have decided to “ pool their efforts by strengthening joint patrols along their common borders “. This strategy should make it possible to ensure “ better coordination in the face of the threat of terrorist groups and the scourge of the illicit circulation of small arms and light weapons as well as various trafficking and transnational organized crime “, they explained.
In recent days, Senegalese customs have increased the number of arrests of black note traffickers in Kolda, a town located in the south of the country and not far from the Guinean border.
ODL/ac/APA
