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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

SENEGAL: Soldier killed by Casamance separatists

BANJUL, 8 May 2003 (IRIN) - A Senegalese soldier has been killed and another wounded in an attack by dissident fighters of a separatist movement in the southern province of Casamance, according to Senegalese state television monitored in neighbouring Gambia.

The incident took place on Wednesday in Bofa, a village 23km from Ziguinchor, the capital of Casamance province,where efforts are under way to revive stalled peace talks with the government. Separatist rebels have been fighting a low-level guerrilla war for the independence of Casamance since 1982.

However, the rebel Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC)is divided into two factions; a hardline wing which operates in the south of the province, towards the border with Guinea-Bissau, and a moderate northern wing, which holds sway closer to the border with Gambia, which is open to negotiation.

Bertrand Diamacoune, a spokesman for the pro-peace faction, told the private Dakar radio station Walfadjri FM, that his faction had nothing to do with Wednesday's attack. He blamed it on "bandits trying to sabotage the peace process in Casamance".

The MFDC was co-founded by Diamacoune’s elder brother, defrocked Catholic priest Augustin Diamacoune Senghor. Senghor met Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade in Dakar last Saturday to discuss reviving the stalled peace process in Casamance.

Wednesday’s attack came as Senegal’s Interior Minister Gen Mamadou Niang held talks with Guinea-Bissau's President Kumba Yala in Bissau about plans for Bissau to host a meeting of the various separatist factions in Casamance with Dakar's blessing. The aim is to unite the separatists around a common platform for a negotiated autonomy settlement.

In March, a human rights organisation based in Dakar, Senegal, - Rencontre Africaine pour la Defense des Droits de l'Homme (RADDHO) said over 17,000 people in Casamance had been forced to flee their homes because of periodic fighting in the province.

A further 5,000 have fled to Gambia and 6,000 to Guinea-Bissau, according to statistics compiled by the governments of those countries.

Themes: (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

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