Senegal’s fishermen pin hopes on new president to help them fill their nets

Dakar, Senegal – For the traditional, small-scale fishermen of Ouakam Beach in Senegal’s capital Dakar, inequality is just a glance away. “ knows how much a kilogram of rice costs,” said Gueye, “he’s young, he was born in poverty, he didn’t go to private schools abroad – he’s one of us.” For the past years under President Sall, legal fishing by industrial foreign trawlers from China and Europe who had signed contracts with the government, decimated Senegal’s fish stocks, leaving artisanal fishers with empty nets. “The EU signed an agreement with Senegal to steal our resources, that’s why people are going to Europe,” said Gueye, referring to the thousands of local fishermen migrating to Europe on small boats. “I hope Diomaye will put them in their place,” he said, adding that the new president also needs to crack down on illegal fishing, illegal nets and regulate how both industrial and artisanal fishermen operate. “Most of the fishermen are looking to the Canary Islands to reach Europe because they’re worried about the continuation of their fishing activities, especially in view of the cohabitation with oil exploitation,” Senghor said.