No sanctuary for rebel attacks

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, capping a three-day visit to Senegal on Wednesday, said his government would never allow anti-government forces to attack Senegal from The Gambia, a Dakar daily, ‘Le Soleil’, reported quoting an official communique. The Mouvement des forces democratiques de Casamance (MFDC) has been accused of cross-border raids from The Gambia to southern Senegal’s Casamance area. A similar charge was made with respect to northern Guinea-Bissau from where government troops have launched an offensive to force out the guerrillas. The MFDC has been fighting for the independence of Casamance since 1982, an agriculturally fertile area that is virtually separated from the rest of Senegal by The Gambia. Both countries, which in 1982 formed a confederation that eventually broke up, agreed to share information on potential “delinquents and destabilizing elements” in either country, the newspaper reported. Jammeh also pledged to support the peace accord signed between Dakar and the MFDC on Friday in the southern city of Ziguinchor. However, some Senegalese political analysts have described the deal as flawed because it failed to include all the major actors in the war and was reached at a time of increased violence in the Casamance.