Saint Louis | Seb Leban

Climate Change

SAINT

LOUIS,

SENEGAL

Located at the estuary of the Senegal River, which draws the border with Mauritania from its bed, Saint-Louis lies on the waters. The city which was the capital of French West Africa until 1902, was classified by UNESCO with the world heritage site in the year 2000. In front of the city, the river skirts the coast towards the South and is only separated from the ocean by a fine strip of sand just a few dozen meters wide, the Langue de Barbarie, which for a long time protected the city from the assault of the waves.

Erosion, amplified by more numerous and more powerful waves each year, threatens the lives of fishermen in the Guet Ndar district, lying on this tongue of sand. Here, more than 30,000 people crowd into makeshift buildings. Promiscuity and extreme poverty make it one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

Several hundred people had to abandon their homes, destroyed by the waves, several dozen lost their lives there. The first climate refugees have recently relocated to a makeshift camp in Khar Yalla, located several kilometers from the ocean, making it more and more difficult the practice of fishing for which feeds the centuries.