diff --git a/package/neardal/neardal.mk b/package/neardal/neardal.mk
index 382c42e103..c65a5e6169 100644
--- a/package/neardal/neardal.mk
+++ b/package/neardal/neardal.mk
@@ -21,6 +21,13 @@ else ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_LIBEDIT),y)
 NEARDAL_DEPENDENCIES += libedit
 endif
 
+# Both readline and libedit link with ncurses but the configure script
+# forgets to take that into account, causing the detection to fail
+# when linking statically
+ifeq ($(BR2_STATIC_LIBS),y)
+NEARDAL_CONF_ENV += LIBS=$(shell $(PKG_CONFIG_HOST_BINARY) --libs ncurses)
+endif
+
 define NEARDAL_INSTALL_NCL
 	$(INSTALL) -m 0755 -D $(@D)/ncl/ncl $(TARGET_DIR)/usr/bin/ncl
 endef