Insecurity persists in Casamance

One person was killed on Friday when armed men ambushed cars travelling on a major road in Casamance, southern Senegal, ‘Le Soleil’ daily reported. On the following day, three cars were hijacked and their passengers robbed of their belongings on a road north of Ziguinchor, Casamance’s main city. Both attacks have been blamed on dissident members of the Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC). Friday’s casualty was the first since 23 March, when the Senegalese government and the MFDC signed the second part of a two-tiered peace accord. The first part was signed on 16 March. Soon after the agreements were signed, government soldiers and MFDC fighters clashed near the Gambian border, leaving one soldier wounded. The renewed insecurity does not come as a surprise to Dieudonne Pandare of RADDHO, a Dakar-based human rights organisation which closely monitors the Casamance crisis. The treaty was a move to satisfy the international community, Pandare told IRIN on Monday. In order to achieve sustainable peace, “all the major actors have to be implicated” through discussions and a give-and-take approach, he added, referring to the fact that some of the MFDC’s political and military leaders were not involved in the negotiations. The MFDC has been fighting since 1982 for self-determination for Casamance.