The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Senegal: the army claims the capture of rebel bases in Casamance with the support of Bissau

2021-02-09T22:01:14.171Z


The Senegalese army said on Tuesday it had taken three "bases" from the rebels in Casamance (south) and recovered weapons during an offensive launched at the end of January after months of calm in this old conflict, carried out according to it with the support of neighboring Guinea-Bissau. Senegalese army officers took the press, including AFP journalists, for a rare visit to two of these cantonme


The Senegalese army said on Tuesday it had taken three "bases" from the rebels in Casamance (south) and recovered weapons during an offensive launched at the end of January after months of calm in this old conflict, carried out according to it with the support of neighboring Guinea-Bissau.

Senegalese army officers took the press, including AFP journalists, for a rare visit to two of these cantonments, tin and wood shelters scattered under the large trees in the Blaze forest and sheltering kinds of buried bunkers that can shelter a few people.

Read also: Virus in Senegal: night curfew extended by at least eight days

The surroundings of these

"bases"

were punctuated with charred surfaces, traces of the fighting according to the Senegalese officers.

The

relatively intact

“bases”

belonged to the Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC), which has been leading an armed independence rebellion since 1982, said Colonel Souleymane Kandé, the local Senegalese army chief.

They were captured after artillery fire, preceding the assault by land forces supported by planes and helicopters, an officer said on condition of anonymity saying he had taken part in the fighting.

The Senegalese army has not provided any indication of losses on either side, and no assessment of the human toll is otherwise available from a reliable and independent source.

Senegalese officers also did not say how long the operation launched on January 26 would last.

After years of

"neither war nor peace"

in this fertile and landlocked region, the operation was triggered as a result of

"abuses"

committed against the populations by the rebels, the officers said.

According to the Senegalese army, it also aims to allow populations displaced by one of the continent's oldest conflicts to resettle, and to put an end to the trafficking that flourishes in the region, such as that of wood or Indian hemp.

Senegalese forces said they seized mortars, rocket launchers, guns and motorcycles, which they showed to the press.

They also said they took control of several hectares of cannabis fields.

"These are industrial farms of Indian hemp which fed the criminal economy of the armed gangs

,

"

said Colonel Kandé.

Casamance, a region separated from northern Senegal by The Gambia, had already experienced a resurgence of violence in early 2018 with the massacre of 14 men near Ziguinchor.

The army then arrested about twenty suspects, who are still awaiting trial.

The peace negotiations, made difficult by the internal divisions of the MFDC, had been relaunched after the coming to power in 2012 of President Macky Sall.

But they did not result in a definitive agreement to end a conflict that has claimed thousands of civilian and military lives, devastated the economy and forced many residents to flee.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-02-09

You may like

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.