Insecurity is growing and worries the population, who no longer sleeps soundly. After the murder committed last Thursday on a Franco-Senegalese, named Anne-Marie Rosalie Ngom aka Béa, in her home located in the « Les Aigrettes » district in the town of Somone, as well as the multiple stabbings and thefts in the tourist towns of Mbour, Saly, Ngaparou and Somone, security management has become an emergency in this area.
On the Petite-Côte, there is sadness on people’s faces as the economic machine has restarted with force. After two years of pandemic, which has plagued the tourism sector, the seaside resort and its surroundings are returning to the resumption of tourism activities. Today, tourists have returned en masse to these sites that sounded hollow. This situation rekindles the hearts of millions of people, most of whom had sunk into precariousness.
But this currency-providing sector risks plunging back into its ways. Despite the presence of the Defence and Security Forces, the population wants to play its part alongside them to overcome this evil that risks disrupting the resumption of activities in this sector. After the tragic event, which occurred in Somone, the Mbourois, alongside their mayor, sounded the alarm. To deal with the outbreak of insecurity that is shaking their city, the populations have initiated a meeting to discuss urgent solutions to deal with this galloping insecurity. According to Saliou Diouf, mayor of Somone, the galloping demography of the city as well as its development should encourage people to reflect, especially in the field of security.“Somone is no longer what it was before, we have gone from 500 inhabitants to 15,000 inhabitants, the town has developed. Many people come to live here. As it is a tourist area, criminals think they can come here to solve their problems by stealing. And this time it went beyond theft. I am very shocked and very affected by what happened in Somone. We are very saddened. Less than a week ago, we were talking about insecurity and we were organising ourselves in collaboration with the gendarmerie to look at ways and means to stem this phenomenon,” said Mayor Saliou Diouf. He alluded to the death of Béatrice Ngom, coldly murdered in her home by two youths. It was January 5.
They were placed under a warrant of committal on Tuesday by an investigating judge from the Mbour High Court. Faced with this situation, he promised that teams and surveillance cameras will be installed in Somone. He deplores that many of the offences perpetrated there is the work of the Jakarta men. Aware that they are the most exposed to this insecurity, the populations, led by Raïssa Béatrice Fall Diop, resident of the Séane District, demand the urgent installation of security measures. She says: “The population, the Somonoise associations are alongside the municipality so that this type of crime can never take place in Somone again. The attacks take place in broad daylight. What we note is that Somone, which was a village, has become a commune, a large city. The security transition is essential for a city like Somone. We want a city that makes you want to live peacefully with local populations who live here in full communion. It is urgent to strengthen ties with the gendarmerie so that this issue of insecurity is taken head-on by the population so that we can live in safety.
Thus, to achieve this objective, she invited the populations to become more involved, but also to have a culture of denunciation. “We have to collaborate with the gendarmerie. Somone is a haven of peace, we live here in peace. We do not want Somone to become the target of thugs. We respect the Gendarmerie a lot, we want more commitment on their side so that this never happens again”, continues Raïssa Béatrice Fall Diop.
The Clandestine Garage at Saly’s Entrance, a Source of Insecurity
In Saly, tourist activity has resumed. Despite the presence of a police station, the tourist police and the research section, the station is disfigured by the presence of a clandestine garage installed just at the entrance of Saly. This muddy setting has become a nest of thugs. Tourism stakeholders are asking for help to free this grip.
As a reminder, President MackySall had released a budget of 1 billion, in 2013, for the renovation of the entrance to Saly. But at the end of the work, the clandestine garage took over the premises. True paradox! “We prefer what it was before to what is today. All of Saly‘s insecurity comes from this clandestine garage. We have been discussing this problem for 7 years, but no solution has been found”, denounced a tourism actor. To fight against insecurity, the town hall released a budget of 50 million for the construction of a police station. This is why the administrative authorities are invited to act quickly to release these illegal occupants. “We are not going to accept that a minority sacrifices an entire investment. If the town hall has requested that this space be freed up, it must be done,” he adds. On the other hand, the mayor and the director of Sapco must quickly begin the landscaping work in order to protect this space from anarchic occupations.
