Senegalese Refugees Flee to Gambia After Separatist Disaster

 The displacement is because of a senegalese navy operation towards rebels in casamance who’re preventing for independence.

Stray bullets whistled previous senegalese villager modou badjie and his household as they ran by means of a cashew forest in the course of the evening to achieve neighbouring gambia.

Badjie, his three wives, many youngsters and prolonged members of the family are amongst greater than 690 individuals who have crossed the border to flee a flare-up in preventing between troopers and separatists in senegal’s southern casamance area, in line with authorities figures.“their pictures may have hit one among us,” badjie stated within the gambian village of upert, some 4 kilometres (three miles) from the border, the place the household took shelter in march. “individuals ran away due to the preventing and left all their belongings behind,” he stated. “we misplaced the whole lot and are very drained.”

On march 13, the senegalese navy launched an operation towards rebels in casamance preventing for independence. The military stated the operation was to clear the forest space the place the rebels had camps which they used for unlawful actions, together with rising hashish.

Shaped in 1982the separatist motion has been largely dormant since a ceasefire in 2014 however continues to launch occasional assaults, prompting navy interventions.

The rise up has thrived on perceived marginalisation of the area wedged between the gambia to its north and guinea-bissau to the south.

The most recent clashes displaced greater than 6,000 villagers in each senegal and gambia, the place households have been internet hosting refugees, putting stress on the tiny west african nation of about two million individuals, its authorities stated.

Badjie’s dozen kin moved in with a household of about 15 who supplied to host them. Ladies and kids sleep collectively beneath the corrugated iron roof of their cement house on mattresses laid on the ground.

The boys keep in tarpaulin tents donated by the gambian crimson cross. “it is extremely scorching inside,” stated badjie, trying to tie down unfastened sheets of canvas flapping within the wind. “now we have to attend till midnight to go in.”

Badjie’s host suleyman sonko stated humanitarian help had been sluggish and sparse. “when meals arrived (in might) it was not sufficient,” sonko stated. “we determined to offer all of the rice to our company.”

Regardless of the discomfort, badjie is just too cautious to enterprise again. Days after their arrival, a gambian villager selecting cashew nuts close to the border was hit by a stray bullet.