Country Information

The population of Senegal is approximately 10.58 million. Some 43.3% of Senegalese are Wolof, 23. 8% Pulaar, 14.7% Serer, 3.7 % Jola, 3% Mandinka, 1.1% Soninke, 1% European, 1% Lebanese, and 9.4% other. Ninety-four percent of Senegalese are Muslims; 1% practice indigenous beliefs; and 5% are Christians (mostly Roman Catholic). Senegal is a republic under multiparty democratic rule. The President is elected to a 5-year term. There are sixty-five political parties.

Political and Economic Environment
Once a colony by France, Senegal gained independence in 1960. It joined with the Gambia to form the confederation of Senegambia in 1982. However, the envisaged integration of the two countries was never carried out, and the union was dissolved in 1989. Senegal is one of the few countries in West Africa that has never experienced a coup d'etat. Power was transferred peacefully, if not altogether democratically, from Senghor to Diouf in 1981 and, in fully democratic elections, from Diouf to Wade in 2000.

Senegal has limited natural resources because of desertification; resources include fish, phosphate, peanuts, and iron ore. The country depends heavily on foreign assistance, which in 2000 presented about 32 percent of overall government spending. In January 1994, Senegal undertook a bold and ambitious economic reform program with the support of the international donor community. This reform began with a 50 per cent devaluation of Senegal's currency, the CFA franc, which was linked at a fixed rate to the French franc. Private activity now accounts for 82 percent of the GDP. The GDP is expected to continue to grow at about 5 percent. On the negative side, Senegal faces deep-seated urban problems of chronic unemployment, trade union militancy, juvenile delinquency, and drug addiction.

Humanitarian Situation
Since 1982, people of the Casamance (the southern region of Senegal) have been in more or less an unabated revolt against the Senegalese government in Dakar. The struggle constitutes one of Africa's least publicized wars, though the war has caused a great deal of displacement. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, some 2,200 people fled into the Gambia in 2001 as a result of an upsurge in the fighting between government forces and rebels of the separatist Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC).

The majority of those fleeing the fighting and who bore the brunt of the insurgency have been women and children. According the U.S. Committee for Refugees, between 10,000 to 20,000 Senegalese were uprooted as a result of a government military offensive in May and June 2002, with about half fleeing to the Gambia and the other half becoming internally displaced, most of whom returned home within a few weeks or months. However, present estimates put the number of internally displaced between 5,000 and 12,000.


Updated January 2004