Senegal’s MFDC set to end internal bickering

Senegal’s pro-independence Mouvement des forces démocratiques de Casamance (MFDC), elected on Friday the Reverend Diamacoune Senghor as its president and Jean-Marie Francois Biagui as secretary-general, a spokesman told IRIN. MFDC spokesman Alexandre Djiba denied media reports that Senghor, who was the secretary-general, had been brushed aside during the movement’s four-day congress held in the Gambian capital, Banjul. Rather, Djiba said, the appointments made through elections rather than nominations would create greater stability within the faction-ridden movement. He said there was now no single leader and that decisions would be taken by consensus. “Everyone has his role to play,” he said. The MFDC has been fighting for an independent Casamance, in southern Senegal, since 1982. Djiba said that the movement’s immediate aim was to strike a peace deal with the Senegalese government to end the war. Senghor, without the accord of the congress, signed peace accords with the government of President Abdoulaye Wade but these have yielded no results. However, Djiba said Banjul congress had now suggested meeting the Senegalese government on 15 September to discuss peace talks.