Chancellor Merkel has arrived in Senegal ahead of visits to Ghana and Nigeria. With nearly a dozen CEOs in tow, the German chancellor hopes that economic development will curb migration from the region. German Chancellor Angela Merkel landed in Senegal late on Wednesday as she starts off a three-country west African tour. The chancellor is set to press for further investment in a region that produces many of the migrants trying to make their way towards Europe. Indeed, migration was the main focus of Merkel's first day, during which she met Senegalese President Macky Sall. "We must not be accomplices of the people smugglers. We must fight illegality but also create legality and conditions for work here on the ground," Merkel said via her spokesman Steffen Seibert. Sall agreed with Merkel, saying that attempting the often deadly Mediterranean crossing was "not in the dignity of Africa," and remind his citizens that they were likely to be rejected for asylum in Europe, as there was no war or religious persecution to flee at home.

Source: allafrica.com