Ten-year-old killed by landmine

Years of secessionist trouble in Senegal’s southern Casamance region claimed the life of a 10-year-old boy last week, killed by an anti-tank landmine over a year after the signing of a hard-won peace deal. The child, Cherif Sane, died while out collecting cassava with two friends from farms in the forested region around his village Dijbelor Baraf, some 5 km south of Casamance’s main city, Ziguinchor. Sane’s school teacher, Cheikh Tidiane Cisse, was called to help but his pupil was already dead. “One of my pupils, Cherif Sane… had gone into the bush accompanied by two of his friends on Tuesday night to transport cassava when he was killed by an anti-tank mine that blew open his stomach,” Cisse, who was visibly shaken, told IRIN. “When I heard the news I went to the scene, but the corpse was in a terrible state,” he added. The dead boy’s two friends were also seriously hurt by the blast and were transported to the main hospital in Ziguinchor, said their teacher. Since 1990, more than 1,000 people have fallen victim to landmines in Casamance, the lush southern region of Senegal that is partially cut off from the rest of the country by Gambia. In December 2004, the government of President Abdoulaye Wade signed a groundbreaking peace deal with the Movement for the Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) to end more than two decades of secessionist trouble. Nonetheless, some MFDC splinter groups remain unhappy with the deal and have continue to sow trouble along the long road linking Ziguinchor to the capital Dakar. In January, a government official was killed by unidentified gunmen in an attack suspected to be the work of separatist guerrillas.