Pointe Séréne, Jan 20 (APS) – The Minister of Tourism and Crafts, Mountaga Diao, reacting to the armed attack against the Riu Baobab hotel in Pointe Séréne on the night of Saturday to Sunday, assured the APS that the authorities will take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of hotel receptionists and tourists.
Criminals attacked the Riu Baobab hotel in Pointe Séréne (Mbour), during the night from Saturday to Sunday, taking away loot of more than 12 million CFA francs.
“The authorities will take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of hotels and tourists […]whether (with) the Ministry of the Interior or the Ministry of the Armed Forces, all necessary measures will be taken to strengthen the security system of Riu and tourists,” he declared, at the end of a meeting with hotel managers.
“What is certain is that this will not happen again, because it is not at this moment that the tourist season will stop,” insisted the Minister of Tourism and Crafts, accompanied by a delegation including the secretary general of his department and the director of tourism promotion (DPT).
There was also the governor of the Thiès region, Saer Ndao, the prefect of the Mbour department, Amadou Diop, the sub-prefect of Sindia, and the mayor of Malicounda, Maguette Sène.
The Minister of Tourism watched videos of the attack on site, which show people wearing hoods, armed with cutters and rifles entering the hotel, leading some handcuffed employees to the cash register from behind.
Once inside, some thugs locked the employees in a room, while others tried to break down a cabinet containing money with a large hammer.
“We are no longer going to allow these situations, because quite simply, our ambition is to make Senegal the largest seaside resort in Africa,” reacted the Minister of Tourism and Crafts.
Welcoming the reaction of the defense and security forces, who came to the rescue, Mountaga Diao noted that “tourism is one of the engines of economic growth which has a good place in the framework” of the country’s public policies. .
-With this in mind, he announced several measures, including the upcoming construction of a tourism police station near Pointe Séréne and a wastewater treatment plant, as well as the construction of a 15-kilometer road to bypass Mbour.
“All of this constitutes constraints lifted so that Riu can build its second hotel to bring the number of rooms to a thousand, because we need it in view of the 2026 YOG,” he noted.
Mountaga Diao invited this hotel chain to “build other hotels in Senegal to have a capacity of five thousand beds to be able to organize the African Cup”.
Hotel managers welcomed this visit by the minister, pleading for increased security.
According to one of the hotel managers, “12,100,000 CFA francs were taken” during this armed attack.
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