Having started in 2014, talks between the Senegalese State and the “Mouvement de Forces Democratiques de Casamance” (MFDC) remained secret until they culminated in an historic treaty on Thursday August the 4th in Bissau. The emissaries entrusted to sign the peace accord were Admiral Papa Farba Sarr, ad hoc committee coordinator for the State, and Cesar Atoute Badiate and Lansana Faboure, both MFDC leaders along with other highly ranked army officials from the host country of Bissau Guinea.

Historic; indeed, if not because of what it promises, then because these proceedings were kept under wraps all along. Something like this is rarely achieved in important negotiations, but that is just what the Senegalese State and the MFDC have done for 8 long years thanks to the help of the Henry Dunant Centre for Humanitary Dialogue.

The foundations for a productive discourse have been laid to end the armed conflict, which has plagued the development of the South for 40 years. On June 12, 2019, the ad-hoc State negotiating committee, and the provisional committee of the Unified Political and Fighting Wings of the MFDC met in Banjul for an introductory meeting. The bases of a trusting relationship began to take form, leading to a second meeting in Toubacouta on November 4 and 5 of 2020. On that day, the two parties, guided by their determined search for peace, assessed the road ahead and agreed to sign a memorandum on December 16, 2020 in Toubacouta, at the end of a third meeting.

7 KEY METTINGS
Despite the Army’s sweeps of rebel compounds, the communication channels remained opened without interruption. A fourth meeting is then held on April 8 and 9, 2021 in Praia. This results in the adoption of a joint declaration on the pillars that should guide the negotiations between the parties, who both reaffirmed their desire to resolve the conflict through dialogue. On July 14 and 15, 2021, the negotiators started mapping out a peaceful solution to the crisis during another session in the Cape Verdean capital. It is on this date that the discussions on surrendering weapons were put on the table, a process which the Senegalese State committed to facilitate. They returned to Praia on 17 and 18 November 2021 (6th meeting), having chosen Cape Verde as an observer for the process, and deepened the discussions in a « frank and open » manner, on the surrendering of arms.

Bissau was just the final act of this delicate saga. Under the auspices of president Umaro Sissoco Embaló, the Senegalese State and the MFDC signed on August 3 and 4, peace agreements in « strict compliance with the Constitution ». Under the patronage of President Embaló, whose country was the guarantor of the discussions, the MFDC committed to laying down its arms and to provide details regarding its weapons. With the establishment of a Joint Commission to supervise and monitor the laying down of arms, the State will guarantee the security of the combatants who give up their weapons, and the continuation of the dialogue in a peaceful and secure atmosphere to finalize the peace agreement in a definitive and diligent manner, thanks to the facilitation of the Henry Dunant Centre. The latter which will remain an intermediary between the parties. The rest, as the saying goes, is history…

By Bocar SAKHO / bsakho@lequotidien.sn