PREVIEW
Settling the four-decade conflict in the south of the country would boost confidence in the government after nearly a year in power
A peace agreement brokered by Guinea-Bissau's President Umaro Sissoco Embalo should move Senegal closer to ending Africa’s longest-running separatist conflict despite one of the main rebel groups not being party to the deal.
The agreement with the Mouvement des Forces Démocratiques de Casamance (MFDC), which has fought a mostly low-level independence war for the southern region of Casamance, which borders Gambia, has lasted over 40 years. The separatists’ cause was primarily driven by ethnic grievances and the economic neglect of Casamance by successive governments in Dakar.
Much of the de-escalation of the conflict was achieved during Macky Sall’s presidency, who promised investment in Casamance and de-centralised some administrative powers (AC Vol 56 No 15, Sall and the separatists). Those measures, and a series of counter insurgency operations by the Senegalese army in 2021 and 2022 led to a partial peace deal in May 2023 with the MFDC faction led by Caesar Badiatte, which saw several hundred MFDC fighters lay down their arms.
The peace deal is a particular boon for Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, who was mayor of Ziguinchor, the main city in Casamance, before his friend and protégé Bassirou Diomaye Faye was elected President last year.
Sonko has frequently played on his family roots in Casamance, and the region swung behind his and Faye’s Patriotes africains du Sénégal pour le travail, l'éthique et la fraternité (Pastef) party last year, helping propel them to victory in presidential and parliamentary polls (AC Vol 65 No 7, Historic vote could set a new economic path).
Still outside the agreement is the Front Nord faction led by Salif Sadio but his forces have been much diminished and number less than a hundred fighters (AC Vol 62 No 4, Sall roots out rebels).
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