A UNESCO World Heritage site off Dakar and among the best-known emblems of the transatlantic slave trade. Historians debate the actual numbers passing through this particular island, with some research indicating figures far smaller than popularly assumed, but Gorée's meaning as a place of remembrance is not disputed.

In 2024, at an offshore oil field and a gas field shared with Mauritania. This is an entirely new revenue source for a country that previously produced no hydrocarbons at meaningful scale, and Senegal is the third country in this library to enter the knowing-the-money-is-coming phase, after Guyana and Suriname.

It began producing after the world accumulated thirty years of documentation on what went wrong where. The problem was never a lack of knowledge but holding discipline once the money arrives. Senegal's specific context is that public debt was already high before oil arrived, mirroring Suriname exactly — precisely when discipline is hardest to hold.

Advantages are inflation far lower and more stable than in neighbours with their own currencies, and near-zero exchange rate risk for euro transactions — something Ghana, Laos, Bolivia and Suriname all lack and each has paid for. Disadvantages are no independent monetary policy, a fixed rate that can leave exports uncompetitive, and long-running regional political debate about autonomy.

Yes. Citizenship is by descent, naturalisation requires a statutory residence period, and there is no citizenship-by-investment programme. Senegal also belongs to ECOWAS, whose protocols allow member state nationals to move, reside and work within the bloc.

It is a direct consequence of British and French colonial division along a river, producing among the world's most unusual border shapes. The Casamance region in the south is separated from the rest of the country by The Gambia and experienced a conflict lasting decades, with a peace agreement signed in 2022.

Maritime migration from the Senegalese coast to the Canary Islands is among the most dangerous routes in the world, with death tolls documented by international organisations as very large. Youth unemployment is the principal driver. What must be said plainly: when lawful routes to work abroad are too narrow, people do not stop going — they go by more dangerous means.

Senegal is regularly cited among West Africa's more stable democracies, with several transfers of power through elections since independence in 1960. The period 2021-2024 saw substantial political tension including protests, arrests and disputes over the electoral calendar, but the 2024 presidential election took place and power was transferred. When assessing institutional risk, look at how a country came through its most recent crisis rather than merely whether it appears calm.