Senegal and Gambia reach historic agreement to secure common border after Bullock incident

This announcement was made by the Senegalese-Gambian Permanent Secretariat. The agreement follows diplomatic tensions that arose from an incident on July 16 near Bullock, in southwestern Gambia, where Senegalese army elements demolished a fence at a Gambian military post. Banjul described this as "provocative and unacceptable," while Dakar cited encroachments affecting its territorial integrity.

To avoid further incidents, both states decided to resume joint border demarcation and materialization operations starting August 15. The roadmap includes accelerating border densification by installing new markers where old ones are missing or insufficient. According to Cherno Omar Barry, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Senegalese-Gambian Permanent Secretariat, these works began in June but were suspended due to delays in training Gambian experts.

A public awareness campaign will also target border communities, especially farmers whose lands sometimes extend into the buffer zone. The new demarcation will also precisely determine if the Gambian military camp in Bullock is on Senegalese or Gambian territory. Barry noted that the July incident could have been avoided if densification operations had been completed, a process agreed upon by Dakar and Banjul since 2015 and reaffirmed in June.

Through dialogue and consultation, authoriti