Senegal’s leader says France should close all army bases in country

NEWS WIRES

29 November 2024 at 2:31 am·1-min read

Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye on Thursday said that France should close all its army bases in the country, noting that it was “incompatible” with Senegal’s national sovereignty. Faye swept to power in the March elections.

Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye told AFP Thursday that France should close its military bases in the West African state as it prepared to mark the 80th anniversary of a notorious colonial slaughter.

Faye said that France’s President Emmanuel Macron had admitted that his country’s troops were responsible for a “massacre” of Senegalese soldiers in 1944.

Faye hailed the acknowledgement but said that allowing French bases in the country was incompatible with national sovereignty.

“Senegal is an independent country, it is a sovereign country and sovereignty does not accept the presence of military bases in a sovereign country,” Faye said in an interview at the presidential palace.

Faye swept to power in March’s elections promising to assert Senegal’s sovereignty and an end to dependence on foreign powers.

He however maintained that the act did not constitute a break with France, like those seen elsewhere in west Africa in recent years.

The atrocity has long been a bone of contention between Paris and Dakar.

(AFP)

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