Dakar, Senegal / Madrid, Spain – The Senegalese authorities deployed a particular counterterrorism unit, created, geared up, and educated with funding from the European Union, to violently suppress latest pro-democracy protests, a joint investigation between Al Jazeera and porCausa Basis reveals.
Since 2021, the trial of widespread and controversial opposition chief Ousmane Sonko has led to demonstrations throughout the West African nation, through which dozens have been killed. Al Jazeera and porCausa obtained visible proof, Spanish authorities contracts, a confidential analysis report, and testimonies from a number of sources suggesting that the EU-funded Speedy Motion Surveillance and Intervention Group, often known as GAR-SI, was used to violently crush these protests.
In a single video, safety personnel in the identical kind of armoured automobiles the EU purchased for GAR-SI Senegal are seen firing tear fuel at a protest caravan organised by Sonko final Could. Al Jazeera verified that the incident occurred within the southern Senegalese village of Mampatim, about 50km (31 miles) from Kolda, within the Casamance area.
The EU-funded elite items had been as an alternative meant to be primarily based in Senegal’s border areas with Mali to combat cross-border crime.
Elite unit
GAR-SI Sahel was a regional venture lasting between 2016 and 2023 and funded with 75 million euros ($81.3m) from the EU’s Emergency Belief Fund for Africa (EUTF for Africa), a pot of improvement funding devoted to addressing the basis causes of migration in Africa.
The programme was carried out by the Worldwide and Ibero-American Basis for Administration and Public Insurance policies (FIIAPP), a improvement company belonging to Spain’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs. GAR-SI items had been created throughout the area, in nations like Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal, “as a prerequisite for his or her sustainable socio-economic improvement”.
The Senegalese 300-strong unit, created in 2017, price greater than 7 million euros ($7.6m on the present trade fee) and was geared toward making a particular intervention unit within the city of Kidira, on the border of Mali, to guard Senegal from potential incursions by armed teams and cross-border crimes, together with migrant smuggling.
Modelled after Spanish items that fought towards the separatist motion Basque Homeland and Liberty, additionally recognized by the Spanish initials ETA, GAR-SI Senegal has acquired technical coaching and mentoring from the Spanish Civil Guard in addition to French, Italian and Portuguese safety forces.
After the completion of the venture, on the request of all stakeholders, the EU delegation in Senegal continued with a second part utilizing one other funding mechanism, in line with one Spanish and one Senegalese police supply conversant in the matter. About 4.5 million euros ($4.9m) was earmarked for a second 250-strong GAR-SI Senegal unit close to the city of Saraya, near the border with Guinea and Mali.
A second unit was additionally created in Mali however for different nations, particularly Chad, the venture was thought-about to be a “failure”, in line with the previous Senegalese police official, who mentioned the EU misplaced cash by paying for gear that was not applicable to be used.
Deux blindés de la gendarmerie suivent le convoi du président Ousmane SONKO 🇸🇳 et tirent des grenades lacrymogènes aux foules qui tentent d’arrêter le convoi pour l’accompagner.#caravanedelaliberté pic.twitter.com/2QKlkUJjIh
— Ⓜ️ister Bakhdad2️⃣.0️⃣🇸🇳🇨🇦 (@BakhdadO) May 27, 2023
‘A critical allegation’
An evaluation of the automobiles captured within the Mampatim video reveals that they match with the URO SUV Vamtac ST5, a Spanish mannequin made by Galicia-based heavy-duty producer Urovesa. The identical automotive mannequin was delivered within the presence of the EU ambassador to Senegal in April 2019 as a part of an assist package deal to extend GAR-SI Senegal’s capabilities to combat cross-border crime. The unit additionally acquired drones, sixteen 4×4 Toyota pick-up automobiles, an ambulance, 12 bikes, and 4 vans, however it’s unclear whether or not these had been additionally deployed through the protests.
Inside FIIAPP contracts seen by Al Jazeera and porCausa additionally point out Vamtac armoured automobiles gifted to the Senegalese gendarmerie as a part of the GAR-SI venture in 2022.
The assets, initially offered for the crime unit, had been de facto built-in into the territorial instructions and utilized by Senegalese safety forces, in line with a Spanish police supply working in Senegal.
A former senior Senegalese police officer additionally confirmed the usage of the GAR-SI unit throughout pro-democracy protests in Senegal. When proven the proof, human rights teams had been alarmed.
“These items appear to be used to repress human rights as an alternative of combating terrorism or surveilling the border,” mentioned Ousmane Diallo, a researcher with Amnesty Worldwide’s West and Central Africa bureau. “It’s a critical allegation because the Senegalese gendarmerie has been concerned in repressing human rights and the fitting to protest since 2021.”
‘There isn’t a proof’
Al Jazeera and porCausa obtained the 67-page closing analysis report of the GAR-SI venture from 2022, which makes clear in several components that in Senegal, GAR-SI capabilities otherwise from different nations the place the unit is current.
The report states that the unit is typically deployed on joint missions along with different police items, such because the Surveillance and Intervention Squadron, or ESI within the French initials, of the Senegalese Gendarmerie, to hold out a sequence of missions for “inner safety”.
The confidential doc stresses that the venture lacks human rights safeguards and that there isn’t a hint of any written technique elaboration or communication inside the police hierarchy, with instructions for operations outdoors of border areas being given informally and orally.
Al Jazeera and porCausa reached out to the Senegalese Ministry of Inside and Public Safety however didn’t obtain a solution earlier than publication. In its response, the EU Fee mentioned it had no data on the items Senegalese authorities deployed within the demonstrations.
“The EU has constantly known as on Senegalese authorities to analyze any disproportionate use of drive towards peaceable demonstrations and expects applicable follow-up,” it mentioned. The EU spokesperson additionally mentioned the framework of GAR-SI was “very particular and clearly outlined in its scope and interventions”, including that gear or funding for it “needs to be utilized in cross-border areas to combat organised crime and enhance safety for the native inhabitants”.
The Spanish overseas and inside ministries denied, in a joint assertion, the involvement of the elite unit within the protests. “The Ministry of the Inside and the Civil Guard affirm that there isn’t a proof of the use by the Senegalese authorities of items fashioned inside the framework of the GAR-SI venture within the aforementioned actions.”
The assertion added that it didn’t present GAR-SI with safety coaching “within the context of mass public demonstrations or protests” and that the venture settlement forbids Senegal to “make any use of supplies and gear in a manner that deviates from the target of the [GAR-SI] venture”.
A supply of controversy
As a number of courtroom circumstances mounted towards Sonko, amongst different issues, expenses of corrupting a minor and libel, the politician mobilised his supporters, who’ve alleged that the fits are a plot by incumbent Macky Sall to flatten the opposition forward of the presidential election.
This led to riots and a crackdown by the federal government in March 2021 and in Could and June 2023. Protests returned in February 2024 when Sall introduced that he would postpone the election, which was alleged to occur on February 25. The courts declared the transfer unconstitutional, leaving the nation in limbo as to when the election will occur.
Not less than 60 individuals died for the reason that first protests in 2021 because of stay ammunition fired by the Senegalese safety forces or by agitators, known as “nervis” in Senegal, paid by the federal government to return to protests, in line with an Amnesty Worldwide estimate. Nobody has been prosecuted so far.
Amid the continued social unrest, irregular migration additionally went on. As of August 2023, one in three irregular arrivals to the Canary Islands in Spain had been Senegalese.
Diallo, the researcher with Amnesty Worldwide, mentioned all companions of EU-funded tasks have a accountability to make sure that the programmes they fund don’t contribute to human rights violations, akin to deadly repression of peaceable protests.
But when European authorities had been conscious of the rights violations dedicated in Senegal, they didn’t present it. On the finish of 2023, Spanish Inside Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska visited Senegal to strengthen the cooperation towards irregular migration, whereas the EU and Senegal signed their newest settlement on improvement assist that will assist Senegalese authorities intercept departures from the nation.
This occurred regardless of the venture turning into a supply of controversy in Europe.
Final yr, an analysis report commissioned by the European Fee revealed vital mismanagement by the pinnacle of the staff implementing the GAR-SI Sahel regional venture — Francisco Espinosa Navas, the Spanish civil guard-general.
The report recognized unjustified bills totalling at the least 12 million euros ($13m) and errors within the alternative of protecting gear, which led to additional bills. The report additionally famous that neither FIIAPP nor the European Fee raised these irregularities with the European Anti-Fraud Workplace (OLAF).
The fraud case was a part of a wider scandal in Spain that exposed a widespread corruption scheme, often called the “Mediador” case, allegedly involving Common Espinosa Navas in extortion, preferential remedy in public contracts, and different illicit actions.
The corruption scheme allegedly supplied businessmen and entrepreneurs preferential remedy in trade for procurement of public contracts and extorted them for beneficial inspections and entry to European assist funds. The inner analysis report mentions that, in Senegal, an excessive amount of gear was acquired.
“The design and implementation of this venture was not targeted on individuals however on suppliers, firms to make the most of it,” one exterior guide conversant in the venture, instructed Al Jazeera and porCausa anonymously.
This story is a joint investigation between Al Jazeera and PorCausa Basis.