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Senegal peace envoy shot dead
21/12/2007 17:39 - (SA)
Dakar - A presidential peace envoy to the violence-torn Senegalese region of Casamance was shot dead on Thursday, in what appeared to be a repeat of the slaying of an
official last year.
Samsedine Dino Nema Aidara, named by President Abdoulaye
Wade as a peace negotiator earlier this year, was gunned down in his family home in the village of Mahmouda Cherife, close to the border with Gambia, state news agency APS reported on Friday.
The rebel Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC)
has been fighting since 1982 for greater autonomy for the
mainly-Christian southern region of Senegal, which they say has
been neglected by the Muslim-led government in Dakar.
The death of the rebellion's historic leader, Catholic
priest Augustin Diamacoune Senghor, in Paris in January deprived the government of a moderate interlocutor in the rebel ranks.
Many Senegalese were shocked last year by the murder of Omar
Lamine Badji, head of the council of the regional capital
Ziguinchor, whose throat was slashed by heavily-armed assailants in his home.
President Wade had offered $100 000, a passport and an airline ticket to find the killers.
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