2024-04-22 22:17:15
Actors need 13 billion CFA francs to demine more than a million square meters of land in Casamance, according to the Governor of the Ziguinchor region. Mor Talla Tine chaired an assessment and programming workshop of the activities of the Regional Committee for Coordination and Monitoring of Interventions in the areas of reintegration and humanitarian demining in the Ziguinchor region.
More than a million square meters of land still remains to be cleared in Casamance, at a cost of 13 billion CFA francs, according to the Governor of Ziguinchor. “We have one and a half million square meters of land to be cleared in Casamance. To do this, we need at least 13 billion CFA francs,” indicated Mor Talla Tine at the opening of a Regional Development Committee (Crd) on the amplification of demining actions and the return of populations who had fled the conflict in Casamance. This meeting also aimed to take stock of the action plan of the Committee for Coordination and Monitoring of Interventions in the Ziguinchor region, developed in 2023. “To achieve this objective of strengthening demining actions, but also of returning and reintegration of populations, we considered it appropriate to set up a regional committee for monitoring, harmonization and coordination of interventions in terms of demining and socio-economic reintegration of populations,” explained Mor Talla Tine.
He invited countries friendly to Senegal to come and support this humanitarian demining, through the provision of additional resources. “This humanitarian demining requires an enormous amount of financial resources,” said the Governor, who welcomes the calm noted for some time in the region. “For a very long time, we have not recorded a robbery or an armed attack. There is also a desire on the part of the parties to move definitively towards peace,” said the head of the regional executive.
The director of the National Agency for the Relaunch of Economic and Social Activities in Casamance (Anrac) also magnifies this lull noted in Casamance, which encourages populations to return to their localities.
To support these populations, the State of Senegal has created security conditions. The Regional Coordination Framework, which is part of this dynamic, makes it possible to create a dashboard and have visibility on everything that is being done for the populations, according to Ansou Sané. “The regional coordination framework was put in place with a roadmap costing 15 billion CFA francs. 13 billion are dedicated to the demining component and two billion to the socio-economic reintegration component. The State has committed to making a contribution of 2 billion,” explains the director of Anrac.
Mr. Sané indicates that the Crd makes it possible to evaluate the work that has been done since last year and to be able to set out the priorities for the year 2024. It is also a question of seeing with the technical and financial partners, which is possible to do, but also the framework to create to facilitate the arrival of other partners. Associated with the dynamic of peace in Casamance, the local authorities, strongly represented, magnified the holding of this committee chaired by the Governor of Ziguinchor. In addition to the return of refugees and displaced persons from the conflict, populations who have been disrupted in their social and economic organization are encountering difficulties in obtaining civil status documents. This aspect, taken head-on by the authorities, is experiencing interesting results. The first civil documents were distributed in the commune of Djinaky. “This has restored confidence to populations who are starting to ask for more. The need is of the order of 50 thousand for the three departments of the region,” says Alphousseyni Diémé, mayor of the commune of Djinaky. More than 3,500 people were issued a civil status certificate.
The conflict in Casamance has had many consequences on the populations and socio-economic development of the region. This conflict, which lasted around forty years, caused, among other things, loss of human life, the abandonment of several villages, and led to the movement of several people towards Gambia and Guinea-Bissau. “We note more than 800 victims of mines, land polluted by mines, the development of the war economy with timber and drug trafficking, cannabis cultivation, armed theft of livestock and goods, the destructuring of the social and family fabric…”, we list in the terms of reference of the Crd.
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