(Ecofin Agency) - Yesterday, October 17, during national workshop for the approval of a land policy document, Moustapha Sourang, lawyer but also former Senegalese minister, recalled the alarming proportions which land issue is taking in Senegal. Numbers disclosed by the president of the land reform commission are indeed troubling.

Less than 10% of Senegalese has a regular land title, and jurisdictions are flooded with land dispute cases. « This reform which the President wished for was based on three main axes, first reviewing the laws in place. Unfortunately, the law is not known, that’s why 60% of disputes brought to courts are land-related. The second axis is the identification of challenges and roadblocks and find answers, and finally, the report for the decree’s presentation states that the reform’s goal is to ease land environment,” Sourang said.

“95% of the nation’s lands are not included in the legal traffic or in the Senegalese traffic. Senegalese; legally, do not own their country. Over its population of 14 million people, only 150,000 have land titles, the rest has precarious licenses, and this shows how important it is to regulate the situation,” he continued.

A pragmatic and inclusive land reform is therefore highly needed.

Souha Touré