The assignment of Brigadier General Souleymane Kandé, Chief of Staff of the Land Army (Infantry) and coordinator of the Special Forces, to the position of Military Attaché at the Senegalese Embassy in New Delhi, has had the effect of shaking up this country and leaving many questions unanswered. The assignment looks like a demotion, even a sanction against an officer who has given the Republic all his talent and served with self-sacrifice to fight a domestic enemy that has never ceased to wreak havoc. Any sensible person has the right to wonder why a senior officer who, at a time when he could be the most useful to his country, is sent thousands of kilometres away. Since there is no limit to indelicacy, General Souleymane Kandé was punished while leading the “African Lion 2024” security exercises in Dodji, surrounded by his men and American and Dutch troops.

What’s the logic in asking a General who has been monitoring developments on the eastern front and possible incursions by jihadist movements for a good three years to replace a Colonel as a military attaché in India?

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No one can help but wonder why General Souleymane Kandé is being exiled. This is all the more painful given that the Mfdc could see this act as a form of victory against Senegal and its Republic.

General Souleymane Kandé’s major influence on the protection of our national sanctuary cannot be overlooked. It has to be said out loud that General Kandé is the executioner of the Movement of the Democratic Forces of Casamance (Mfdc).  As Commander of Military Zone no. 5, he did everything in his power to destroy this rebel force and push it into its last entrenchments. Political scientist Yoro Dia said in these columns that “the Mfdc is dead, General!”, referring to a speech by General Cheikh Wade, who advocated a hard line over a long period of time to finally eradicate this constant threat to territorial integrity.

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General Kandé alongside his troops fought against the criminal economy that fed the maquis. The beautiful seizures of marijuana and the destruction of these plantations in areas that had ended up being lawless lands, under the yoke of a criminal organization that for a long time pushed our State to look the other way against a relative lull, are quite symbolic of General Kandé’s action. He fought against illegal logging and contained all criminal activities with the elements of the Parachute Battalion. He is an officer who has sweated for his stars, far from the comfort that a bureaucracy in the ranks has come to impose on certain senior officers.

With General Souleymane Kandé, we can proudly say that Marshal Louis-Hubert Lyautey’s maxim, with troops who know how to take a village by night and organize a market there by day, is a concrete reality in the ranks of the Senegalese armies. It is in areas where populations have fled for three decades that this leader of men has reconquered all the land and overseen the return to the fold of thousands of souls.

The people of Bissine, after decades of wandering, will have seen in the action of the command of Military Zone No. 5, this promise that Senegal is a land with a republican army ensuring the reign of order at all times.

General Kandé’s list of honors includes a number of impressive feats. The National Army’s sweep of the Djibanar forest in January 2021, to track down armed gangs and protect the return of long-displaced populations to their villages, is one of the acts that demonstrated a real paradigm shift by our troops against a domestic enemy. I can’t forget the blissful smile I had in February 2021, when four of the Mfdc’s historic bases on the southern front, on the border with Guinea-Bissau, were retaken by the Senegalese Army under the leadership of General Kandé, surrounded by sons from all over Senegal who brought the Republic and our desire for a single, indivisible Nation back to where it had been sabotaged.

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He’s a Senegalese hero whose wings have been broken, to the detriment of his country. There’s a religion in this country of fiercely fighting anything bigger than oneself. Souleymane Kandé, a soldier, will have been defeated by this cult, but the Republic will know how to recognize its sons who cherish it and who shed blood, tears and sweat to keep it alive. It is this exceptional soldier, whose code of honour demands reserve, that the weight of political hands will have driven from a station where his usefulness is beyond measure. Time, the best judge of all, will restore him to his rightful place. The only valid prayer is that his stars, earned through bravery, self-sacrifice and sacrifice for the Republic, continue to shine.

In the wake of the articles on General Kandé’s decision to appeal to the Supreme Court against the decree concerning his posting, and the flood of revelations, our Head of Publication will receive a summons from the National Gendarmerie. As a professional, he will respond to this summons and defend himself, while maintaining his honour and dignity, all with the lucidity for which he is renowned.

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I have not failed to see the agitation of the inquisitors of the social networks, who are ecstatic that a man of the media should be bullied for having spoken his mind. The aversion to opposing views and the dictatorship of ideas can be seen when yesterday’s first critics of the State become today’s defenders, and set themselves up as shields against any form of attack on State security. When those who applauded the destruction of public property, the heckling of the police and gendarmerie, and the insulting of military personnel, become the prosecutors of a republican conscience, it’s clear that we’ve plunged into a crazy dystopia.

The show might have been funny if the posturing of these new guardians of republican order, who have spent their entire career distilling the embers of chaos, weren’t in total contradiction with everything they’ve done to undermine the country’s institutions. Since it’s an open-air circus, and it’s up to the loudest mouth to be seen and rewarded, we can understand the excitement of the moment. Humor is the politeness of despair, so let’s laugh at their inconsistencies.

By Serigne Saliou DIAGNE / saliou.diagne@lequotidien.sn

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH