In Senegal, three days after the start of the new military operation in northern Casamance, the bases of rebel leader Salif Sadio's faction of the Mouvement des forces democratiques de la Casamance (MFDC) are beginning to fall.
Six weeks after the attack of the Casamance rebel movement MFDC - more precisely the Salif Sadio group - against the patrol of the Senegalese White Helmets of the MICEGA, the response of the Senegalese army is decisive in a latent conflict which has lasted since 1982.
In five months, at least 77 trucks smuggling rosewood from Casamance have been stopped by Senegalese soldiers on the southern border of The Gambia. In retaliation, the MFDC faction controlling northern Casamance, led by Salif Sadio, attacked an Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) White Helmets patrol active in the region. Result: two Senegalese soldiers dead and nine captured.
Read: Senegal: In Casamance, the MFDC relaunches hostilities
This was followed by a performance by the rebel leader responsible for the attack, who paraded the captured soldiers and advocated peace, in a speech aimed at boosting the morale of the Senegalese army. “You were deceived, there should be no war between Casamance and Senegal. What I don't like at all is that it's often innocent people… sons of the poor who are sent to the front,” said Salif Sadio, a few hours after having these same “sons of the poor” killed.
Two weeks later, after mediation by the Vatican association Sant'Egidio, the captured soldiers were released. Insufficient for the staff and the Senegalese State, which seek to put a stop to the affronts of the rebels of the MFDC.
The territorial integrity of Senegal at stake
The military operation of the Senegalese army, which started on Sunday, therefore, seeks to "dismantle the bases of the MFDC faction of Salif Sadio" particularly. The MFDC groups of Caesar Badiette and Kamougué Diatta are, a priori, not concerned.
Enough to stop the financing of this faction of the MFDC, whose actions, in February, threatened the talks between Dakar and Casamance. And, indeed, the Senegalese military intervention resulted in the dismantling of two bases of the rebels of Salif Sadio in the north of Casamance.
Many civilians from the region flocked to the Gambian border, where the authorities in Banjul were ready to welcome them.
The Community of Sant'Egidio, whose closeness to the Casamance conflict dates back to the time when the movement was united under Abbot Augustin Senghor, asked for “a halt to the fighting to resume the negotiation process”.
But, while the secessionist demands of the MFDC threaten the territorial integrity of Senegal, and the transition to violence came from the rebel group of Salif Sadio, how to resume negotiations in the current state of things?
According to a Senegalese military source who confided in RFI, the February attack was experienced as "a humiliation" by the Senegalese army, which intends to "avenge the affront". Or, more officially, according to the press release from the Senegalese general staff, "the Senegalese armies remain determined to continue these security actions and to preserve, at all costs, the integrity of the national territory".