Senegal Military - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Military and security forces

Senegalese Armed Forces (les Forces Armées Sénégalaises, FAS): Army, Senegalese National Navy (Marine Senegalaise, MNS), Senegalese Air Force (l'Armee de l'Air du Senegal), National Gendarmerie (includes Territorial and Mobile components); Ministry of Interior: National Police (2022)

note: the National Police operates in major cities, while the Gendarmerie primarily operates outside urban areas

Military expenditures

1.7% of GDP (2021 est.)

1.5% of GDP (2020)

1.5% of GDP (2019 est.) (approximately $490 million)

1.6% of GDP (2018) (approximately $490 million)

1.5% of GDP (2017) (approximately $430 million)

Military and security service personnel strengths

approximately 19,000 active personnel (12,000 Army; 1,000 Navy/Coast Guard; 1,000 Air Force; 5,000 National Gendarmerie) (2022)

Military equipment inventories and acquisitions

the FAS inventory includes mostly older or second-hand equipment from a variety of countries, including France, South Africa, and Russia/former Soviet Union; in recent years, the FAS has undertaken a modernization program; since 2010, it has received small amounts of newer equipment from more than 10 countries, with France as the leading supplier (2022)

Military service age and obligation

18 years of age for voluntary military service for men and women; 20 years of age for selective conscript service; 2-year service obligation; women have been accepted into military service since 2008 (2022)

Military deployments

750 Gambia (ECOMIG); 970 Mali (MINUSMA); note - Senegal also has about 1,100 police deployed on various UN peacekeeping missions (2022)

Military - note

Senegalese security forces continue to be engaged in a low-level counterinsurgency campaign in the southern Casamance region against various factions of the separatist Movement of Democratic Forces of the Casamance (MDFC); while violent incidents have decreased since a tacit cease-fire was reached in 2012, the insurgency, which began in 1982, continued as of mid-2022 and remained one of longest running low-level conflicts in the world, claiming more than 5,000 lives and leaving another 60,000 displaced (2022)

note: in August 2022, a representative of the Senegalese Government and a leader of the MFDC signed an agreement in which the MFDC pledged to lay down its arms and work towards a permanent peace

NOTE: The information regarding Senegal on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Senegal 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Senegal 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.