Senegalese ministers have said it was their government — and not the European Union — that was behind a fisheries agreement not being renewed after Brussels announced European boats would stop activities in Senegal’s waters.
In force since 2019, the accord between the European Union and the West African country — which Brussels said landed Dakar 8.5 million euros ($9.1 million) over five years — is due to expire at midnight Sunday to Monday.
On Tuesday, EU ambassador Jean-Marc Pisani said the agreement would not be renewed for the time being after the European Commission notified the Senegalese government in May of “shortcomings” over illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.
“Our friends from the European Union organised a press conference to tell the whole world that they had decided to stop signing fishing agreements with the Senegalese government. This is an absolute untruth,” Higher Education Minister Abdourahmane Diouf said late Wednesday, according to a video posted on social media the following day.
“It is the government of Senegal… that gave the signal a long time ago to tell them that we cannot continue to sign fishing agreements with you that will impoverish Senegal’s fishermen,” he said at a rally in the suburbs of the capital Dakar.
The announcement comes ahead of Sunday’s legislative elections, where the new Senegalese government’s leaders hope to gain a parliamentary majority allowing them to implement their leftist and pan-African agenda.
Fishing is an economic and cultural pillar in Senegal, providing a direct or indirect livelihood for some 600,000 people out of a population of around 18 million, according to a widely accepted figure.
But the sector faces crisis, with local fishermen using traditional boats regularly blaming competition from foreign factory ships for the shortage of fish.
The controversy over foreign fishing was heightened with the March election of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who has pledged a fairer distribution of revenues from natural resources to benefit the Senegalese people.
Faye in May called for an audit of the Senegalese fishing sector and an evaluation of fishing agreements and licences.
At the end of the same month, the European Commission identified Senegal as a “non-cooperating country” in the fight against illegal fishing.
In a video published on social media, Senegalese fisheries minister Fatou Diouf also denied that the EU had taken the initiative in terminating the agreement.
“The state was not yet negotiating,” she said.
“As soon as I arrived here… I had commissioned an assessment and that assessment is under way,” she said.
The EU has said the deal would affect 18 Spanish and French vessels fishing for tropical tuna and hake.
