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Villagers' ears hacked off
09/05/2008 09:25 - (SA)
Ziguinchor, Senegal - A group of armed men rounded up about 20 villagers in Senegal's restive southern Casamance region and sliced off their left ears with machetes before releasing them, villagers and officials said on Thursday.
Wednesday's gruesome attack was apparently a warning to villagers to keep them from trying to harvest lucrative cashew nuts from trees in the area, victims said. The nuts - one of the more lucrative crops in the region - are harvested by villagers, bandits and rebel fighters struggling to survive in the bush.
Victims interviewed at a nearby hospital said the assailants claimed they were rebel fighters with the Movement of the Democratic Forces, or MFDC. The group has waged a low-level insurgency against the government since 1983.
However, a spokesperson for the rebel group, Antoine Diamacoune, denied any involvement by their fighters and condemned the attack as "barbaric".
One of the victims, Malang Sane, said he and his companions had gone into the bush to harvest cashew nuts when they were set upon by about 20 men with guns and machetes.
"They kept us bound up all morning and then one of them used a machete to cut off our left ears," Sane said. He said they were attacked near the village of Tampe, on the Guinea-Bissau border about 20km southeast of the regional capital, Ziguinchor.
Dominique Mendy, who also lost his left ear in the incident, said the assailants warned them that they would be putting their lives at risk if they tried to return to harvest nuts from the cashew trees.
Hospital officials said they had admitted 16 people with an ear sliced off in the attack. Those at the hospital said there were another five people who refused medical treatment but it was not clear why.
Army spokesperson Ousmane Sarr confirmed the attack and said Senegalese forces were stepping up surveillance in the region. Sarr said the area where the attack occurred is known for violence, and they usually try to send villagers going into the bush with soldiers for protection. He said they were not informed about this group ahead of time.
Casamance, separated from the rest of Senegal by Gambia, has been plagued by sporadic violence for years as the MFDC fought for independence and then as its fighters splintered into various groups.
The region is also sown with landmines, and bandits regularly attack vehicles on its roads.
More than 1 200 people have been killed in more than two decades of fighting.
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