SUMMARY

A breakaway faction of the main MFDC group, MFDC – FN (MFDC - Northern Front) stood on the sidelines of the intrastate conflict in the southern Senegalese region of Casamance from 1992 and through the rest of the decade (see Senegal: Casamance). However, as the group was drawn back into armed confrontations with the army in 2001 and 2002 it also carried out one-sided violence.

While the main MFDC group continued to engage the government’s armed forces after MFDC – FN left the movement in 1992, the latter survived by operating business activities including the supply of timber, palm-oil, rhun-palm, palm-wine and cannabis to the Gambian market with complete impunity. Under an informal agreement with the Senegalese regime, MFDC – FN was rewarded for laying down its arms by being allowed to retain de facto control of much of the northwest of the Bignona departments in Casamance. However, in 2001 a government offensive against the rival faction MFDC - S also enabled the army to re-establish bases in areas that had previously been controlled by MFDC – FN. This caused another eruption of fighting between the army and MFDC – FN. The following year Senegalese troops again entered land granted to MFDC – FN. This time, apart from fighting government forces, the movement resorted to attacking civilians. According to sources close to Sidy Baji, the leader of the group, attacks against civilians would continue for as long as the government did not take the Casamance problem seriously.

Aside from the one-sided violence that could be linked to the resumption of fighting, there was also a resurgence of highway robberies and raids, some of which lead to the death of civilians. Analysts put these down to hunger among the rebels, who had admitted in October 2001 that they were out of cash.

MFDC – FN first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 2002, when the one-sided violence resulted in over 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in May that year, when the group attacked a convoy carrying supporters of the ruling party PDS (the Parti Democratique Senegalais), who were touring Casamance as part of a political campaign ahead of municipal elections, killing at least eight civilians.