The European Commission is talking to Senegal following reports an EU-trained security force, meant to tackle cross border crime, was instead used to crack down on peaceful protestors.
“We are in contact with the Senegalese authorities to get more information on these allegations,” a European Commission spokesperson told reporters on Wednesday (6 March).
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The statement follows an Al Jazeera investigation that found the EU-funded Rapid Action Surveillance and Intervention Group, also known as GAR-SI, was used to suppress pro-democracy protestors.
The commission says it wants reassurances the GAR-SI unit is only used as originally intended; in cross-border areas near Mali to fight organised crime and to increase the protection of the civilian population.
It has also denied any knowledge of units deployed by the Senegalese against the demonstrators, despite video footage of reported EU-funded armoured vehicles seen teargassing protestors.
The GAR-SI started in March 2018 and ended in June 2021, says the commission. And it says the unit has since been embedded in an elite security force managed by Senegal.
The project received money from the EU’s Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, which is meant to address root causes of migration.
This comes with an obligation by the European Commission to ensure its programmes in Senegal do not violate human rights.
It is unclear to what extent such obligations are respected. And the commission does not have any documents on how human rights are respected in EU-funded programmes dealing with border management abroad.
Meanwhile, Senegal has seen a spike of turmoil, following a February decision by president Macky Sall to postpone elections.
The move had been denounced as a constitutional coup by the opposition, whose leader Ousmane Sonko was jailed last summer on insurrection charges.