Senegalese authorities have dispossessed hundreds of farmers in Western Senegal to make way for phosphate mining and mineral extraction by Spanish-Senegalese firm SEPHOS and French-Senegalese company Grande Côte Opérations (GCO).
These companies – and the authorities which granted them permits to extract phosphate, zircon, ilmenite and other minerals – have infringed the human rights of local communities in Koudiadiène, Lam-Lam, Pambal as well as in Diogo and surrounding areas, including the right to adequate food and nutrition, the right to land, the right to a healthy, clean and sustainable environment, the right to health and the right to water, according to a new report from FIAN International (English summary – full report in French here).
Although most communities in rural Senegal have access to land according to traditional customary rights, rather than formal land titles, the report highlights a lack of legal recognition of the practice. This leaves peasants and rural communities unprotected when authorities grant mining concessions to domestic or foreign companies.
“Koudiadiène is in the phosphate mining reserve. This material is under our feet and if the state needs it, the population will have to move,” lamented one Koudiadiène community member.
Moreover, the level of compensation offered for the loss of land has been derisory or non-existent pushing many affected people into extreme poverty
“Before, we were comfortable and had enough to eat. The women helped with the agricultural tasks. The income from the crops enabled us to eat well and cover all our other expenses. Since our field has been grabbed, I don't work and stay at home,” said Ndeye Ndiaye, a victim of land grabbing from Diogo
“My children don't have enough to eat. I often ask the neighbors for money to pay for the children's medical care. We are tired. We need help,” she added.
The affected communities were not informed about the mining operations in advance, despite the devastating impact it has since had on their crops and health.
“Peasants are not even notified in time of the machines' intervention on their fields … community members with fields close to the mine have lost everything because of the dust that settles on their crops,” explained Armand Gondet Dione, a human rights defender from Pambal.
“The fields have become unfit for cultivation. Trees have dried up and died before they could even be inventoried. Grazing areas are disappearing, flora and fauna are dying, drought and erosion are worsening.”
Both SEPHOS, which is engaged in phosphate mining and GCO, which extracts zircon, ilmenite, rutile and leucoxene have parent companies or main assets respectively in Spain and France.
While Senegal has clearly infringed its obligations under international human rights law and domestic laws, Spain and France are also obliged according to international human rights law to take steps to ensure that mining companies based on their territory do not undermine the right to food and other related rights in Senegal. This obligation also requires states to sanction these actors in the event of abuse, and to provide recourse to those affected by these companies, notably through their national courts and adequate remedies.
Spain and France must take responsibility for the lives destroyed by their companies and take action without delay.
Read the full report in French here.
The report will soon be available in Spanish.
In English, you can access here the report’s key messages, recommendations, and a graph illustrating one case of derisory compensation.
For more information, please contact Valentin Hategekimana hategekimana@fian.org or Tom Sullivan sullivan@fian.org
