Landmine Kills Two In Senegal's Casamance

Sunday, 10 February 2013 20:37

(AFP) – A landmine explosion killed a woman and a child Saturday in Senegal's restive Casamance region, the scene of a long-running separatist rebellion, a local resident and a security source said.

"A mine exploded when a cart drove over it. A woman was killed on the spot. A child had his feet blown off and was taken to hospital, where he died," a villager told AFP.

A security source and a hospital official confirmed the incident, which happened on a well-travelled road between the villages of Diokatou and Kassal, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of the region's main city, Ziguinchor.

The Casamance Movement for Democratic Forces (MDFC) has been fighting for independence for the region south of Gambia since 1982.
A Senegalese soldier displays a piece of a landmine in 1997, in the southern Casamance region (Photo: AFP)
The conflict has killed thousands of people and displaced thousands more.

Saturday's explosion comes just over a week after suspected MDFC members killed at least two people in an attack on a bank in the town of Kafountine.

Senegalese troops responding to the attack then killed two of the suspected rebels, the army said.

The Senegalese government began new peace negotiations in Rome with rebel representatives in October last year.

In December, the MDFC freed eight hostages it had been holding for a year, raising hopes that the conflict was nearing a peaceful resolution.