 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| . |  |
. |
Dakar (AFP) April 27, 2010 A rebel leader in the southern Senegalese province of Casamance said Tuesday he was prepared to reopen peace negotiations with the government, but said the talks should take place in a neutral country. Cesar Atoute Badiate, the leader of a faction of the separatist Casamance Movement of Democratic Forces (MFDC), told a private Senegalese radio station that he backed "the idea of negotiations for a definitive peace in Casamance". Senegal's Prime Minister Souleymane Ndene Ndiaye had recently urged the rebels to resume peace talks, after an upsurge in violence between the army and the insurgents. Ndiaye said he was responding to a call for talks by Badiate. "The majority of the deaths are of innocent people. It's for that reason that we want to put an end to the problem," Badiate told Radio Futurs Medias. Badiate said the various factions of the MFDC would hold consultations before opening talks with the government. Badiate himelf is leader of a group fighting on the so-called "southern front" close to the border with Guinea-Bissau. But he said he did not believe negotiations should take place inside Senegal. "At the moment, it's an international problem. We must negotiate in a neutral country, which is not Senegal. "It's not up to me to choose" which country, he said. Ndiaye said last week the government was ready to hold talks "anywhere in Senegal". The Dakar government and the MFDC met on February 1, 2005, at Foundiougne in central Senegal, to negotiate the means of implementing a peace accord that was signed with the rebels on December 30, 2004. A second meeting dubbed "Foundiougne 2" was then envisaged, but the date has been postponed ever since. While the 2004 peace agreement went some way towards easing tensions, clashes never ceased entirely and violence has escalated in the past six months. The charismatic historical leader of the MFDC, Augustin Diamacoune Senghor, died in January 2007, and factional divisions within the movement have grown since, with some MFDC fighters refusing to be bound by the peace deal. Though a relatively low-level conflict, the Casamance separatist rebellion is the longest running in west Africa. The poor region, which is an enclave almost completely cut off from the north of Senegal by the Gambia, has been ravaged by fighting between the army and the rebels since 1982, a blight on an otherwise stable country.
Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Africa News - Resources, Health, Food
Hunger forces mass exodus in parched NigerMaradi, Niger (AFP) April 26, 2010 The UN's food agency doubled its aid Monday to Niger as thousands join a desperate exodus from parched farmland in western Africa's Sahel region, where 10 million people are facing hunger. The search for food has sent thousands flocking into Maradi, the main city in south central Niger, a vast arid country on the southern rim of the Sahara desert that has become the epicentre of the crisis. ... read more |
|
|
| The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |
del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Google
Facebook