In Senegal, calm returned on Monday morning, May 31, in Casamance in the south of the country. Yesterday, the army carried out airstrikes in an area west of Cassolole, near the border with Guinea-Bissau. They targeted parts of the MFDC’s separatist movement. This sweep is in line with the army’s operations in the region in January and February.
as reported from Dakar, Charlotte idrac
The commander of military zone number 5 warned during the resumption of the bases of the Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC) – the bases in Badiong and Sikoune – in early February last year: “Every faction committed on the population will be considered a declaration of war, had Colonel Souleymane Kandé said.
After these operations at the beginning of the year, several bases had been dismantled but no human tolls or arrests had been announced at that time. The commander then realized the risk that MFDC officials would go “enlightened elsewhere”.
The targeted area, Sunday, near Youtou, is located in the middle of a very dense, very bushy forest. It would therefore be a reserve base for these displaced rebels affiliated to branches of the MFDC led by César Aoute Badiate and Ibrahima Kompasse Diatta. The latter have not reacted publicly at the moment. Many villages in the area have been deserted for several years.
To also emphasize that the Sunday operation follows an attack that took place last week against the agents for water and forests during a patrol to combat timber trade. A civilian had been killed.
In Dakar, the army’s communications directorate simply indicated that Sunday’s strikes were aimed at securing places to allow and support the return of the population, without specifying the duration of the operations.
No comment from the Guinea-Bissau army, knowing that Colonel Souleymane Kandé in February last year had spoken of “operational cooperation” with the Bissau-Guinea soldiers in this border area.
One can remember that it has been 40 years since this conflict, with the separatists, shook Casamance in a situation of neither war nor peace in recent years. When he came to power in 2012, President Macky Sall resumed negotiations with a branch of the MFDC. Discussions that so far have not led to a final solution.
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