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Casamance: Why no one is winning one of Africa's oldest wars
Thursday, 21 October 2010 23:48
Africa Review - The secessionist war in southern Senegal is undoubtedly
one of Africa’s longest-running wars. Neither the rebels nor the government are winning it, which means sustainable peace will continue to elude the region.In Senegal, mystery surrounds the transfer of the ownership of the southern-most tip of the country otherwise known as ‘Casamance’ – a word originating from Portuguese - to mainland Senegal.
By all indications, Casamance was once a territory controlled by the Portuguese who later abandoned it to the inhabitants of the region. The locals had already adopted the Portuguese pidgin or Creole – now a fading language symbol of the region.
Casamance is inhabited by approximately two million people – more than neighbouring Gambia – with the ethnic Joola speaking people being the majority.
It is the Joola who have spearheaded the separatist war against the government of Senegal since 1981, shortly after the late President Leopold Sedar Senghor relinquished power to his then Prime Minister, Abdou Diouf.
Justification for war
Accord to oral narratives, the accord between the government and the natives of Casamance was that the latter could backtrack from the union if they felt that power was not effectively decentralised.
The failure to keep this promise is now cited as justification for the war. When peaceful negotiations between the government and the southerners (then headed by a Catholic priest, the late Diamacoune Senghor) to regain the territory failed to yield dividends, the Joola-led rebellion mutated into armed struggle.
In a book published recently in France by the Frenchman Jean-Claude Marut and entitled: ‘The Casamance conflict: What the arms say”, the author who has been closely following the conflict enumerated several reasons why the war is continuing and proposed a few recommendations that could help to end the conflict.
The book has however been banned in Senegal but the author was last week granted a visa to enter Senegal and is at the moment negotiating with authorities to allow the book be sold in the country. He also seeks to be given an opportunity to hold a press conference.
The authorities say they are studying both requests.
Lost political support
Mauru doesn’t think much of the rebels, though. “They (separatists) are not winning the war because they have lost the political support they enjoyed at the beginning due to their excesses and resort to banditry,” he told a local journalist who caught up with the author in Casamance.
This has been conspicuous for a long time because the “Atika” or armed wing of the rebellion has resorted to harassing civilians, vandalising and looting homes and also extorting money and goods from shops across Casamance.
Secondly, the author underscored the fact that the rebellion has failed to engage in mobilising the civilian population of Casamance in social and political activities. Marut observed that the separatist movement is “completely disconnected from the population and its daily concerns”.
For instance, he said when the people of Casamance agitated for a new ferry (after the “Joola” ferry sank in 2002 and killed nearly 2,000 people) one of the separatist leaders said: “What the people of Casamance need is not a new ferry, but independence!”
Casamance is almost cut off from mainland Senegal by the Republic of Gambia and as such the cheapest way to move goods and people is through ferries. Yet this slice of territory is the breadbasket of the entire Senegal.
On the military front, Marut said the rebellion has also been weakened because it has lost the support it long enjoyed in neighbouring Guinea Bissau and Gambia, both of which were once considered as the springboards of the Movement of the Democratic Forces of Casamance (MDFC), as the rebellion is known.
No success
Both countries now routinely arrest and prosecute the MDFC fighters and sympathisers.
President Yahya Jammeh of Gambia, who is himself an ethnic Joola, has severally attempted to mediate the conflict, with no success. These days he is keener on mending fences with President Wade, as are the authorities in Guinea Bissau.
The outstanding problem, according to Marut, is that President Wade’s administration is not interested in engaging the armed wing of the rebellion in his attempts to solve the conflict.
The author says millions of dollars have been spent by successive Senegalese regimes to put an end to the insurgency.
To end the conflict, Marut recommends two things: firstly, that the Senegalese government should recognise the aspiration of the Casamance people for total autonomy.
Secondly, he argues that a more robust dialogue based on good faith is essential if the conflict is to be resolved one and for all.
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