• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Wednesday, February 8, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home World

Violence in Senegal: Gunmen Execute 13 Youths

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
01/07/18
in World
Violence in Senegal: Gunmen Execute 13 Youths

Photo: AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Gunmen ordered youths in Senegal’s Casamance to lie on the ground deep in the forest before executing 13 of them, a survivor said Sunday following the upsurge in violence in the isolated region.

Senegal’s President Macky Sall, condemning an “armed attack of rare barbarity,” summoned his national security council and ordered a ministerial delegation to the scene, a government statement said hours after Saturday’s attack.

Survivor Amadou Diallo said the youths were rounded up while collecting wood in the Bayotte forest, 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Ziguinchor, the regional capital.

Two armed men stopped Mr. Diallo early in the morning, he told local radio. “They made me give them my phone and join others who were arrested before me… They got us to take off our shoes and lie down, then fired on us before withdrawing. I wasn’t hit.”

A source in Ziguinchor said 13 youths were killed, while army spokesman Abdou Ndiaye told AFP seven others were injured.

The Senegalese Press Agency said the assailants would have passed a buffer zone between the Senegalese army and separatist rebels of the Movement for Democratic Forces in Casamance (MFDC).

Abdoulaye Balde, a former armed forces minister and deputy mayor of Ziguinchor, said those responsible were likely outside the peace process in a region where rebels began fighting in December 1982 — though they have long ceased attacks on soldiers.

“We have not been able to identify” the groups responsible, Mr. Balde told AFP.

But he added that the gunmen were “according to information at our disposal perhaps not fully associated with the peace process.”

“When you negotiate with the main (MFDC) leaders, dissidents are often not involved,” said Mr. Balde, who called the attack a surprise while noting that “we knew peace was precarious” in the tense region.

Mr. Sall has “ordered that the perpetrators of this criminal act be found and brought to justice,” the government statement said, adding that the ministerial delegation would “evaluate the security situation and offer the nation’s condolences to the families.”

The army deployed 150 troops to evacuate the victims and flush out the attackers, while the dead were taken to a hospital morgue.

Elusive Peace Deal

Casamance, separated from the rest of Senegal by The Gambia, has been calm for several years since Sall took power in 2012, though peace talks have failed to yield a definitive settlement.

“There had been no tensions lately, no warning signs,” the army spokesman said.

Ziguinchor governor Ibrahima Sakho said he thought the attack would not derail the peace process. “There’s an irreversible dynamic in the direction of peace,” Mr. Sakho said in remarks carried by the news website PressAfrik.

Former colonial power France, whose tourists visit other areas of Senegal in droves, removed Casamance from its list of danger zones in October 2016.

The attack came a day after the army released two MFDC fighters following negotiations spearheaded by Rome’s Community of Sant’Egidio, a charity with ties to the Vatican specialising in peace mediation.

The Casamance separatist movement left thousands of civilians and military personnel dead and forced many to flee over three decades, as well as hurting the economy dependent on agriculture and tourism.

In a New Year’s message last Sunday, Mr. Sall appealed to the Casamance rebels to continue talks to create a “definite peace.”

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

With Contributions by AFP

Related Posts

Senegalese police intervening a protest in support of the arrested opposition leader Ousmane Sonko in Dakar.
World

Senegal Clashes Kill One After Opposition Leader Arrest

by Staff Writer
March 5, 2021
South Africans demonstrating against the human trafficking in Libya.
World

43 Remanded Over Human Trafficking in Senegal

by Staff Writer
December 8, 2020
Migrant boat
Refugees

At Least 140 Dead in Migrant Boat Sinking Off Senegal Last Week: IOM

by Staff Writer
October 29, 2020
Next Post
europe, migrants, refugees

Two Migrants Dead, 290 Rescued Off Libya Coast

Women and children living in the Rukban camp along the Syria-Jordan border in 2016.

Jordan Agrees to Send Aid to Syrians Stranded Near Rukban Border Crossing

Recommended

An AFP journalist views an example of a "deepfake" video manipulated using artificial intelligence.

Deepfake ‘News Anchors’ in Pro-China Footage: Research

February 8, 2023
Syrian rescuers and civilians search for victims and survivors amid the rubble of a collapsed building, in the rebel-held northern countryside of Syria's Idlib province on the border with Turkey, early on February 6, 2023. Syrian rescuers (White Helmets) and civilians search for victims and survivors amid the rubble of a collapsed building

Quake Kills Over 1,200 Across Turkey, Syria

February 6, 2023
Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
A supporter of nurses' strike and NHS holds a placard

UK Faces Fresh Mass Strikes as Wage Talks Derail

February 1, 2023
Israeli security forces in Jerusalem

Palestinian Gunman Kills 7 in East Jerusalem Synagogue Attack

January 30, 2023
The Doomsday Clock reads 100 seconds to midnight, a decision made by The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, during an announcement at the National Press Club in Washington, DC on January 23, 2020

‘Doomsday Clock’ Moves Closest Ever to Midnight

January 25, 2023

Opinion

Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York

George Santos for Speaker!

January 16, 2023
Commuters waiting for buses in Metro Manila. Philippines

Eight Billion and Counting…

November 29, 2022
Mahsa Amini protests

Imagining a Free Iran

October 24, 2022
Vladimir Putin

How 18th Century International Law Clarifies the Situation in Ukraine

September 29, 2022
Vladimir Putin

Falling for Putin

September 15, 2022
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post