Xavier Diatta’s pallets of dried mangoes are rotting visibly. Stored in containers, they have been waiting for more than four months to be shipped from Ziguinchor, in southern Senegal, to Dakar, some 270 kilometers further north. “I can forget their marketing,” laments the boss of Casa Industries SA, which exports processed agricultural products. These are losses that I have not yet evaluated but they are enormous. »

Since June 2, the maritime link between the large city of Casamance and the Senegalese capital has been at a standstill. A decision taken by the Ministry of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs “for reasons of national security”, according to a source within the administration.

After the conviction of opponent Ousmane Sonko to two years in prison for “corruption of youth” on June 1, violent demonstrations broke out in Dakar and Ziguinchor – the city of which he is mayor – leading to the deaths of twenty- three people, according to Amnesty International. “The state suspected that people were taking the boat in Casamance to cause unrest in Dakar. It is a political decision by President Macky Sall who has a grudge against this region which rejected him,” said Abdou Sané, municipal councilor of Ziguinchor.

Although calm has since returned, no date for the resumption of the maritime link has been announced. A prolonged suspension which weighs heavily on the Casamance economy. Separated from the rest of the country by Gambia and affected for forty years by the conflict between the State and the separatists of the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC), the region is landlocked.

An operational fleet of ships

Before the June unrest, two maritime rotations to the capital took place every week. “We have three ships for freight and passenger transport, two which have a capacity of 500 tonnes and the last one of 200 tonnes”, specifies Abdoul Salam Kane, operating director of the Senegalese Consortium of Maritime Activities (Cosama), the company which manages the Dakar-Ziguinchor maritime link. The fleet, he adds, is operational and ready to return to service.

From Ziguinchor, boats usually transport local fruits such as mangoes, oranges or mads to Dakar, but also vegetables, fish and forest products other than wood. In the other direction, manufactured goods, cars, household appliances, gas or medicines arrive. To transport them today, “only the road route remains, the transport costs of which are higher. This is reflected in the selling price of the products. The purchasing power of local populations has therefore fallen and households are suffering,” notes Abdou Sané.

Airplanes, even more expensive, are not an option for goods. Furthermore, the Ziguinchor airport, closed for renovation, was replaced by that of Cap Skirring, 70 kilometers from the regional capital, and the aircraft there cannot transport large quantities of goods.

The cashew nut sector strongly impacted

“We are forced to use trucks and it is riskier because the vehicles can break down and the containers fall,” explains Siaka Diallo, president of exporting traders in the cashew sector in Senegal. And it takes two to three days because of the quality of the roads, while the ship is much faster.” Logistical complications which particularly affect the cashew nut sector, one of the most promising in the region.

Even though the quantity of cashew nuts exported in their raw state has increased – from more than 82,000 tonnes in 2021 to almost 150,000 tonnes in 2023 – transport by road could represent “a shortfall for the local economy of around 1 billion CFA francs [some 1.5 million euros] compared to transport by sea,” estimates Jean-Bertrand Badiane, secretary general of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Industry. agriculture of Ziguinchor.

“The entire sector and the activities that depend on it are affected,” he continues, with dockworkers condemned to technical unemployment, restaurants which have emptied, shops impoverished by the lack of customers…

To bring Casamance out of its isolation, Jean-Pascal Ehemba, president of the Ziguinchor Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, wants to focus on the port. “We are also negotiating with the State in order to be able to directly export our products from Ziguinchor to the final destination without going through Dakar,” he explains. For the moment, Casamance cashew nuts destined for Indian, Chinese or Pakistani markets must first pass through the port of Dakar before being exported.

For his part, entrepreneur Xavier Diatta launched an online petition to request the reopening of the shipping line, which exceeded 4,000 supporters on October 23. “If we reach 5,000 signatures, the Economic and Social Council [an advisory body] will be obliged to organize a session to discuss this issue. And if he does not do so within eight days, it is up to the National Assembly to take up the subject,” hopes Xavier Diatta, anxious to be able to resume his activities as soon as possible.