SUMMARY

The conflict between MFDC Front Nord - MD and MFDC -S was fought against the backdrop of the intrastate conflict in Senegal and its regional linkages. The two groups were splinters from the two original fronts in the conflict against the Senegalese government: Front Nord and Front Sud. MFDC Front Nord - MD stemmed from Front Nord, which left the main MFDC group in 1992, while MFDC - S and Font Sud along the border with Guinea-Bissau.

Front Sud in general and MFDC - S in particular, at times enjoyed warm relations with Guinea-Bissau during the 1990s. However, changes in the leadership of the neighbouring country made the groups’ situation increasingly precarious. Whereas Sadio’s group had previously been allowed to have bases across the border and his men had been able to move around more or less freely on Guinean soil, in the 2000s they faced hostile Guinean troops. In 2006 the newly elected Guinean president Nino Viera launched an attack on MFDC -S bases along the border in an effort to dislodge the group once and for all. After suffering heavy losses Sadio and his fighters eventually managed to break free from a village where they had been surrounded for nearly a month and fled across the province to the Gambian border where they entered the territory of MFDC Front Nord - MD. The incursion caused intense fighting as Sadio’s men seized 17 villages that had previously been controlled by Diémé. The eruption of fighting led to an inflow of refugees to the Gambia.

The non-state conflict between the MFDC Front Nord - MD and MFDC -S is first included in UCDP data in 2006. By mid-June that year, fighting between the two groups had resulted in over 25 battle-related deaths.