The Senegalese army has launched an offensive against fighters allied to the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC), a separatist group in the southern region of the country, causing more than 2,000 people to flee.
The military operation comes less than two months after the
fighters killed four Senegalese soldiers and captured seven others. The army
and the fighters fought in the border area with the Gambia.
The military operation aims to destroy all armed gangs
conducting criminal activities in the southern region of Senegal. The army
began its offensive on March 13 to dismantle the bases of the MFDC along the
Gambian border.
The rebels are reportedly suspected of trafficking cannabis
and rosewood, which is exported to China, to fund their separatist movement.
The conflict between the army and the fighters in the
country displaced 2,000 people. Alasan Senghore, the secretary-general of the
Gambia Red Cross Society, claimed that the latest fight is one of the worst
he’s ever seen. He said, “There’s the firing of gunshots and helicopters are
flying overhead.”
Reportedly, people are abandoning their villages to cross
into The Gambia from Casamance because of the latest conflict. People living
along the border area with the Gambia are moving further into The Gambia to
seek safety.
The conflict is one of the oldest in Senegal. The conflict
began in 1982. It started when independence fighters took to the streets with
rudimentary weaponry after the repression of an MFDC march in December 1982.
After claiming thousands of lives, the conflict has persisted at a slow pace.
In recent years, the Senegalese army took steps to resettle
the displaced. In January 2021, the army launched an operation against MFDC
bases.
The region in southern Senegal is separated from northern
Senegal by the Gambia. The southern region also has different religious, ethnic
and linguistic traditions.
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