Senegal

There was one non-international armed conflict (NIAC) ongoing on the territory of Senegal during the reporting period – Senegal v Mouvement des forces démocratiques de Casamance (MFDC). Common Article 3 and customary international humanitarian law (IHL) apply to this conflict.

Senegal is also a State Party to Additional Protocol II of 1977, but the NIAC does not meet the requirements of Article 1(1) of the Protocol, which requires an organized non-State armed group to hold sustained territorial control.

Since 1982 the MFDC has engaged in a low-intensity conflict in the southern Casamance region of Senegal, described the longest running armed conflict in Africa.¹ The region is differentiated from the rest of Senegal by having an abundance of mineral and ecological resources. It is a major contributor to the national economy, serving as the country’s primary food basket through the production of rice, and it supplies exportable commodities such as cotton.² The Casamance is characterised by its high degree of ethnic diversity, but the predominant ethnic group are the Diola people.³ Politically, the region is highly decentralised and egalitarian in spirit, unlike in the northern part of Senegal where political systems are centralized and hierarchical.⁴

The conflict in Casamance has a complex origin and multiple motivations; internal as well as external factors have contributed to its evolution.⁵ The history of colonization, the creation of colonial borders, the policies of successive Senegalese governments, and the marginalization of the Casamance people are among the internal contributing factors.⁶ According to Casamance separatists, the first president of an independent Senegal, Leopold Senghor, had pledged that the region would gain independence from Senegal twenty years after the country’s independence from France.⁷ Additionally, Casamance’s geographical position, separated from mainland Senegal by The Gambia and enclosed by the Guinea-Bissau border to the south, presents complicated external geostrategic challenges.⁸

In 1985, the MFDC established an armed wing known as ‘Atika’ that started carrying out military manoeuvres in late 1986.⁹ Following a period of planning and the enlistment of insurgents, Atika was fully operational in 1990 under the command of Sidhi Badji (or Sidy Badji).¹⁰ An initial attack was carried out on 20 April 1990, marking the beginning of the military phase of the conflict.¹¹ The 1990s saw a guerrilla insurgency reach its peak.¹² As the MFDC’s military wing underwent a process of radicalisation, the Senegalese government reorganized and divided the Casamance province into Kolda and Ziguinchor regions, effectively eliminating the term ‘Casamance’ from public usage.¹³ The Senegalese government resorted to torture to try and weaken the organization but later reverted to encouraging peaceful engagement.¹⁴

During the 1990s, the then-President Abdou Diouf followed a three-pronged approach of military, political, and diplomatic efforts, but these failed to resolve the conflict.¹⁵ Sporadic and occasionally severe violence persisted despite several ceasefires, displacing large numbers of civilians along the Guinea-Bissau and Gambian borders.¹⁶ After Diouf lost the 2000 presidential elections, his mediation efforts were continued and intensified by President Abdoulaye Wade, leading to several peace accords between 2000 and 2004.¹⁷ Overall, security conditions improved under President Wade, but he too failed to achieve lasting peace.¹⁸ At the same time, the MFDC became increasingly fractured, particularly after the death of its leader Abbé Diamacoune Senghor in January 2007.¹⁹ The MFDC split into three main factions: the Diakaye faction, under the leadership of Fatoma Coly; the Southern faction, under the leadership of César Atoute Badiate; and the Northern faction, led by Salif Sadio.²⁰

The situation in Casamance was a major issue in the March 2012 presidential elections, in which Macky Sall defeated Wade.²¹ Sall attempted to improve relations with Yahya Jammeh, the former President of The Gambia, pledging to engage in ‘genuine’ negotiations and accepting the Italian Catholic organization Sant’Egidio as a mediator in the dispute.²² In October 2013, Sadio’s faction held preliminary peace talks with the MFDC for the first time although no agreement was reached.²³ Amid a widening rift among the factions in the MFDC, Macky Sall called for the existing factions, including the armed wing of the MFDC, the northern front led by Salif Sadio and the southern front comprising the César Atoute Badiate and Ousmane Gnantang Diatta factions, to unite under one secretary-general to facilitate peaceful negotiations.²⁴ The attempt was, however, unsuccessful.²⁵

A major achievement on 10 March 2023 was the signing of a peace agreement that was the result of talks which began in 2020 between the government and Diakaye’s faction.²⁶ Consequently, in Mongone, MFDC fighters laid down arms in May 2023, and in December, weapons were handed in for destruction by 255 former MFDC fighters.²⁷

In comparison with other West African civil wars, the Casamance conflict is fairly low-level.²⁸ Since the beginning of the conflict, an estimated 5,000 people have been killed, with hundreds of deaths from landmines.²⁹ At least 60,000 people have been displaced due to the ongoing conflict and over 18,000 have fled to Guinea-Bissau and The Gambia.³⁰ The Senegalese army and MFDC fighters have committed atrocities against their counterparts and civilians in the conflict.³¹ Even in 2025, areas of forest, fields, and rural tracks are uninhabitable because of landmines and explosive ordnance from the conflict.³² The international community has paid little attention to the conflict in Casamance.³³

Presidential elections in March 2024

Despite former President Sall’s numerous attempts to limit opposition and postpone the elections initially scheduled for February 2024,³⁴ the presidential poll was held peacefully on 24 March 2024 with candidates from the ruling party and the opposition competing.³⁵ On 25 March 2024, the Electoral Commission announced that Diomaye Faye, the candidate for the opposition Patriotes Africains du Sénégal pour le Travail, l’Éthique et la Fraternité, had won the poll. The decision was confirmed by the Constitutional Court on 29 March 2024. ³⁶ Faye won with 54.3 per cent of the vote, beating eighteen other candidates including that of the ruling coalition, Amadou Ba, who won 35.8 per cent.³⁷