Dakar, Senegal / Madrid, Spain – The Senegalese government deployed a special anti-terrorist unit, created, equipped and trained with funding from the European Union, to violently repress recent pro-democracy protests, reveals a joint investigation between Al Jazeera and the PorCausa Foundation.
Since 2021, the trial of popular and controversial opposition leader Ousmane Sonko has sparked demonstrations across the West African nation, in which dozens of people have died. Al Jazeera and porCausa obtained visual evidence, Spanish government contracts, a confidential evaluation report and testimony from multiple sources suggesting that the EU-funded Rapid Action Surveillance and Intervention Group, also known as GAR-SI, was used to violently crush those protests.
In one video, security personnel in the same type of armored vehicles that the EU bought for GAR-SI Senegal are seen firing tear gas at a protest caravan organized by Sonko last May. Al Jazeera verified that the incident occurred in the village of Mampatim, in southern Senegal, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from Kolda, in the Casamance region.
Instead, EU-funded elite units were to be based in Senegal's border areas with Mali to fight cross-border crime.
elite unit
GAR-SI Sahel was a regional project that ran from 2016 to 2023 and was funded with €75 million ($81.3 million) from the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF for Africa), a financing fund for development dedicated to addressing the root causes of migration. in Africa.
The program was implemented by the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP), a development agency belonging to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain. GAR-SI units were created throughout the region, in countries such as Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal, “as a prerequisite for their sustainable socio-economic development.”
The 300-strong Senegalese unit, created in 2017, cost more than 7 million euros ($7.6 million at current exchange rates) and aimed to create a special intervention unit in the border town of Kidira. with Mali, to protect Senegal. of possible incursions by armed groups and cross-border crimes, including migrant smuggling.
Modeled after the Spanish units that fought against the separatist movement Patria Vasca y Libertad, also known by the Spanish initials ETA, GAR-SI Senegal has received technical training and mentoring from the Spanish Civil Guard as well as French security forces , Italian and Portuguese.
Once the project was completed, at the request of all interested parties, the EU delegation in Senegal continued with a second phase using another financing mechanism, according to a Spanish and a Senegalese police source familiar with the matter. Some €4.5 million ($4.9 million) was allocated to a second 250-strong GAR-SI Senegal unit near the town of Saraya, near the border with Guinea and Mali.
A second unit was also created in Mali, but for other countries, especially Chad, the project was considered a “failure”, according to the former Senegalese police officer, who claimed that the EU lost money by paying for equipment that was not appropriate for wear.
Two blind men from the gendarmerie after the message from President Ousmane SONKO 🇸🇳 and throw tear gas grenades aux foules trying to stop the message for the companion.#caravanedelaliberté pic.twitter.com/2QKlkUJjIh
— Ⓜ️ister Bakhdad2️⃣.0️⃣🇸🇳🇨🇦 (@BakhdadO) May 27, 2023
“A serious accusation”
An analysis of the vehicles captured in the Mampatim video shows that they fit the URO Vamtac ST5 SUV, a Spanish model manufactured by the Galician heavy vehicle manufacturer Urovesa. The same car model was delivered in the presence of the EU ambassador to Senegal in April 2019 as part of an aid package to increase the capabilities of GAR-SI Senegal to fight cross-border crime. The unit also received drones, sixteen Toyota 4×4 trucks, one ambulance, 12 motorcycles and four trucks, but it is unclear if these were also deployed during the protests.
Internal FIIAPP contracts seen by Al Jazeera and porCausa also mention the Vamtac armored vehicles gifted to the Senegalese gendarmerie as part of the GAR-SI project in 2022.
The resources, initially destined for the criminal unit, were de facto integrated into territorial commands and used by the Senegalese security forces, according to a Spanish police source working in Senegal.
A former senior Senegalese police officer also confirmed the use of the GAR-SI unit during the pro-democracy protests in Senegal. When the evidence was shown, human rights groups were alarmed.
“These units appear to be used to repress human rights rather than fight terrorism or police the border,” said Ousmane Diallo, a researcher at Amnesty International's West and Central Africa office. “It is a serious accusation, since the Senegalese gendarmerie has been involved in the repression of human rights and the right to protest since 2021.”
'There is no evidence'
Al Jazeera and porCausa obtained the 67-page final evaluation report of the 2022 GAR-SI project, which makes clear in different parts that in Senegal, GAR-SI works differently than other countries where the unit is present.
The report specifies that the unit is sometimes deployed on joint missions with other police units, such as the Surveillance and Intervention Squadron, or ESI, of the Senegalese Gendarmerie, to carry out a series of “internal security” missions. .
The confidential document highlights that the project lacks human rights safeguards and that there is no trace of any written strategy development or communication within the police hierarchy, and that orders for operations outside border areas are given informally and orally. .
Al Jazeera and porCausa contacted Senegal's Ministry of the Interior and Public Security, but did not receive a response before publication. In its response, the EU Commission said it had no information about the units that Senegalese authorities deployed to the demonstrations.
“The EU has consistently called on the Senegalese authorities to investigate any disproportionate use of force against peaceful demonstrations and expects an appropriate follow-up,” he said. The EU spokesperson also said that the GAR-SI framework was “very specific and clearly defined in its scope and interventions”, adding that the equipment or funding for it “should be used in cross-border areas to fight organized crime and increase the protection of the population”. local population”.
The Spanish Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Interior denied, in a joint statement, the involvement of the elite unit in the protests. “The Ministry of the Interior and the Civil Guard confirm that there is no evidence of the use by the Senegalese authorities of units formed within the framework of the GAR-SI project in the aforementioned actions.”
The statement added that it did not provide GAR-SI with security training “in the context of mass public demonstrations or protests” and that the project agreement prohibits Senegal from “making any use of materials and equipment in a manner that deviates from the objective of he [GAR-SI] project”.
A source of controversy
As several court cases piled up against Sonko, including charges of corruption of minors and defamation, the politician mobilized his supporters, who have alleged that the lawsuits are a plot by current President Macky Sall to crush the opposition before the elections. presidential election.
This led to riots and a government crackdown in March 2021 and in May and June 2023. Protests returned in February 2024 when Sall announced that he would postpone the elections, which were supposed to take place on February 25. The courts declared the measure unconstitutional. , leaving the country in limbo over when the elections will be held.
At least 60 people have died since the first protests of 2021 as a result of live ammunition fired by Senegalese security forces or by agitators, called “nervis” in Senegal, paid by the government to attend the protests, according to an estimate by Amnesty International. . No one has been prosecuted to date.
Amid continued social unrest, irregular migration also continued. In August 2023, one in three irregular arrivals to the Canary Islands in Spain was Senegalese.
Amnesty International researcher Diallo said all EU-funded project partners have a responsibility to ensure that the programs they fund do not contribute to human rights violations, such as the lethal crackdown on peaceful protests.
But if the European authorities were aware of the rights violations committed in Senegal, they did not show it. In late 2023, Spanish Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska visited Senegal to strengthen cooperation against irregular migration, as the EU and Senegal signed their latest agreement on development aid that would help Senegalese authorities intercept departures. from the country.
This happened even though the project became a source of controversy in Europe.
Last year, an evaluation report commissioned by the European Commission revealed significant mismanagement by the head of the team implementing the GAR-SI Sahel regional project: Francisco Espinosa Navas, the general of the Spanish civil guard.
The report identified unjustified expenses totaling at least 12 million euros ($13 million) and errors in the choice of protective equipment, which led to additional expenses. The report also notes that neither the FIIAPP nor the European Commission raised these irregularities with the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).
The fraud case was part of a broader scandal in Spain that revealed a widespread corruption scheme, known as the “Mediator” case, that allegedly involved General Espinosa Navas in extortion, preferential treatment in public contracts and other illicit activities.
The corruption scheme allegedly offered businessmen and entrepreneurs preferential treatment in exchange for obtaining public contracts and extorted them to obtain favorable inspections and access to European aid funds. The internal evaluation report mentions that too much equipment was purchased in Senegal.
“The design and implementation of this project was not focused on people but on suppliers and companies to take advantage of it,” an external consultant familiar with the project told Al Jazeera and porCausa anonymously.
This story is a joint investigation between Al Jazeera and the PorCausa Foundation.
