Senegal to install video surveillance at Blaise Diagne Airport to Tackle Security Challenges

In a bid to tackle issues of insecurity in the country, the Senegalese government has concluded plan to install video surveillance with facial recognition at Blaise Diagne Airport.

The decision was the outcome of the meeting which was chaired by the Minister of Tourism and Air Transport of Senegal, Alioune Sarr on Monday June 21, 2021.

The meeting resolved that the move was also “a follow-up of the roadmap on the implementation of the national strategy Air hub and tourism development 2021-2025.”

Speaking about the surveillance, Secretary General of the High Authority of Senegal Airports (HAAS), Colonel Ababacar Sédikh Diouf, said, “Video surveillance with facial recognition will allow us to resolve several issues, including that of anticipation.

He added, “This new device will solve the investigative problems that arise.”

He stated further that with the new system that will be implemented, “we are already anticipating because being intelligent and which even takes into account the positioning of an aircraft as well as the intrusions which are signaled with alerts so that the gendarmerie and the personnel of the companies can react in real time.”

Colonel Diouf noted that video surveillance with facial recognition will also make it possible to monitor operations with cameras of various types installed all over the airport.

“In addition to facial recognition,” he said, “the system will allow people to be identified as soon as they enter the bottlenecks that have been defined.”

“Everything that happens at the airport will be seen on our screens. The video will point out identities to us and suspicious people will be tracked and spotted. This will allow us to carry out a much more targeted control,” he stated.

Diouf added that the technology will also allow the AIBD to enter the Interpol database, in which wanted persons will be found, as well as those on the terrorist list.

In the AIBD database, he said, the High Authority of Airports of Senegal promises to put all the names of people it will receive from the United Nations as well as those of people who are travel bans and targeted terrorists.

“We will be able to identify all these people even if they travel with a false passport, from the screens which will indicate in red, showing that the person is suspicious before revealing his name,” explained the SG of the HAAS.

He siad that if a person is not in the AIBD database and they are suspicious, the system can enter all of their accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) to see if they are known in order to allow agents to make the comparison and give the right information.

He clarified that this is a nucleus that HAAS is forming to integrate after the regional airports, which will be supervised from the AIBD.