France and Suriname have finalized a border delimitation agreement that will facilitate the fight against trafficking and illegal gold panning in the French department of Guyana, according to a French diplomatic source.
Read also: Cocaine: how the mules from Guyana flood mainland France in white powder
"
This is a considerable step forward, it had to be clarified, it was the condition for there to be real cooperation on the common border
", declared the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian, announcing Tuesday, March 3, the upcoming signing of the agreement with his Surinamese counterpart Albert Ramdin.
This signature, which concerns "
the islands of the Maroni river and the Lawa river
", should take place in "
the coming weeks
", a diplomatic source told AFP on Thursday.
The border between the two countries, 500 kilometers long, remained largely unfixed.
Only a few small portions had been delimited by international texts dating from 1891 and 1915. This clarification will facilitate “
the fight against illegal gold panning, a health and environmental scourge and the trafficking that affects this area
”, it is pointed out in Quai d'Orsay.
"
Economic development for the benefit of the French and Surinamese populations living on both sides of the river will also be strengthened
", it was assured.
The lack of a clear delimitation has caused tensions between the two countries due to border incidents in the context of the fight against illegal gold panning.
In Guyana, the fight against clandestine gold panning mobilizes hundreds of soldiers, gendarmes, customs officers, police officers and forest guards every day, in a territory larger than Scotland, where around 10,000 illegal gold miners from Brazil are rife.
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