By Abdoulie John
The Gambia government has dispelled rumours of a planned attack on the rebel Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) by the Senegalese soldiers of the Ecowas Military Intervention in the Gambia (ECOMIG). The rumours of the planned attack has created panic and uncertainty in communities along Senegal-Gambia border villages.
But in a late Friday statement, the Gambia’s President reiterated his government’s commitment to the prevalence of peace in the Gambia and Southern Senegal, a region bedeviled by three decades of separatist rebellion. It is in this regard that President Adama Barrow “has offered his brother President Macky Sall and the people of Senegal his personal commitment and the willingness of his government to support the sisterly republic of Senegal in finding a lasting solution to the over three decade old conflict in the Casamance region.”
The statement of Gambia’s Presidency comes at a time when intense rumours
echoed on online news sites that Senegalese forces in the Gambia are
working on advanced plans to launch “high scale attacks” against MFDC
rebel faction led by Salif Sadio. The rumours were exacerbated by last Thursday’s landmine that reportedly killed a Gambian father and his two children.
“Such rumours have apparentlly put great pains on Gambian communities
living along the Foni/Casamance border who are apprehensive over the
consequences of an outbreak of hostilities between Senegalese military and MFDC,” President Barrow said, assuring that the Gambia is neither placing troops on Casamance soil nor offering the use of its territory as a launching pad for many attack on MFDC.
But the Presidency was quick to add, “the Gambia will not also on the other hand allow the use of its territory by
any person or groups of armed or unarmed individuals to destabilize or incite violence in the Casamance or any other part in the world.”
Ends