Mohammed BS Jallow, the vice president of the Gambia, is on a two-day business visit to Senegal as part of an effort to improve cordial ties between the two neighbors.
Ousmane Sonko, the prime minister of Senegal, welcomed Mr. Jallow to Dakar.
The visit is intended to deepen the long-standing friendship and collaboration between Senegal and The Gambia, according to the vice president’s office.
According to a tweet from Mr. Jallow’s office, the Vice-President and his delegation—which includes important ministers—will also meet with President Bassirou Diomaye Faye to talk about the special bilateral connections based on shared geography, history, culture, and development.
A few days prior to the visit, the Senegal-Gambia joint military committee had a significant meeting in Bakau, on the Atlantic coast of Gambiana.
Reviewing bilateral cooperation and defense agreements between the two nations was possible during the meeting, which was presided over by the Gambian Minister for the Armed Forces and attended by the Senegalese Ambassador and the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Senegalese Armed Forces.
The Senegalese Army Public Relations Directorate (DIRPA) reports that an important conference of the Senegal-Gambia joint military committee was held in the Atlantic coast town of Bakau on July 23 and 24.
In the presence of the ambassador and the deputy chief of staff for the Senegalese armed forces, the Gambian Minister of the Armed Forces oversaw the inauguration ceremony.
Concurrently, the tenth bilateral conference between Senegalese and Gambian customs took place in Dakar, with Bassirou Sarr, the Minister of Finance and Budget’s director of cabinet, serving as chairman.
Senegal borders the Gambia, which is connected by the Wolof language and shared cultural customs. Senegal and the Gambia have pursued closer collaboration since gaining their independence.
Their effort to combine their political and economic forces through the Senegambia Confederation in 1981 was a brief union.
Even though it was dissolved in 1989, the groundwork for close cooperation has been left by this confederation.
Senegal was instrumental in helping to end the political unrest in the Gambia in 2017 after Yahya Jammeh refused to cede power to Adama Barrow, the country’s current president.
Jammeh was driven from office and into exile in Equatorial Guinea by Senegal, who spearheaded attempts for a peaceful transition with the backing of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Dakar was also able to undermine the Movement of Democratic Forces of (MFDC), a group that had utilized Gambian territory as a rear base, as a result of Barrow’s rise to power.
Since his election on March 24, Senegal’s new head of state, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, has arrived in the Gambia as the second nation in Africa.
Faye’s first official journey (abroad) to Mauritania was just before the visit.