Four Senegalese soldiers lost their lives after their vehicle detonated an anti-tank mine in the Casamance region, a zone where separatist insurgents operate, as confirmed by the army on Friday.
The explosion, which occurred during a mission on Thursday in Nord Bignona, near the Gambian border, also resulted in injuries to three other soldiers, the army’s public relations unit conveyed on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Senegal’s military has been conducting security operations against separatist rebels affiliated with the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) for several months.
These rebels seek autonomy for the region, which shares borders with Guinea-Bissau and has faced conflict since 1982, marking one of Africa’s longstanding active insurgencies, claiming numerous lives in its low-intensity separatist campaign.
Although the conflict had been relatively subdued, Senegal launched a significant offensive in 2021 aimed at eradicating the rebels. Despite limited updates on casualties, military operations have persisted.
Casamance, situated in Senegal’s southernmost territory and nearly isolated from the country by Gambia, boasts a unique cultural heritage and language owing to its history as a former Portuguese colony.
President Macky Sall, re-elected in 2019 for a second term, has underscored the resolution of the rebellion as a primary objective. Recent government initiatives have focused on repatriating Casamance residents displaced by the conflict, alongside the reported destruction of multiple rebel strongholds.
Past attempts at peace, including signed agreements between the government and rebels, have failed to endure. In August 2022, a peace agreement was inked in Guinea-Bissau involving MFDC unit leader Cesar Atoute Badiate and a representative of President Sall, mediated by Guinea-Bissau’s head of state, Umaro Sissoco Embalo.