A new month of November is coming to us, an opportunity like last year to energetically celebrate the Defense and Security Forces, with Senegal Armed Forces Day looming. I proudly praise the Senegalese Army and all of the Defense and Security Forces on every possible occasion. In the sub-regional context, made up of schizophrenic military powers, quite incompetent in their security and sovereign prerogatives, while seeking to make old bones in the experimentation of political power, exemplary soldiers, who remain in the ranks and do not who go beyond their prerogatives in the smooth running of a Republic, are to be admired.

Senegal is a country which, despite all the hammer blows, all the unfair attacks, all the attempts to create insurrectional shifts, manages to hold, endure and above all respond discreetly and effectively. Our defense and security forces are the subject of all accusations of intent, they are caricatured indiscriminately, little of the very essence of their missions is understood. The former Chief of Staff of the French Armed Forces, General François Lecointre, underlined at the microphone of the Rtl Grand Jury, the lack of knowledge of the authorities and journalists of their armies in France. General Lecointre returned to the culture of commitment, self-sacrifice, discipline coming from a solid exercise of authority, as well as the brotherhood of arms that a large part of the ruling caste and media actors had difficulty understanding. This dissonance between the reality of the armies and the perception of the opinions of a country can undermine some of their missions and keep their contributions to the smooth running of States in total vagueness. There is a Nation-Army culture in Senegal which helps our Defense and Security Forces to be better understood in their raison d’être and to better understand their contributions to the viable functioning of the country.

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We said in these columns that we never invest at a loss in all armies, and especially in their training. Defense is one of the issues that prevails over everything in Senegal, and this should be encouraged more. The inauguration this week of the new headquarters of the National Gendarmerie is an act which shows that at the security level, Senegal’s ambition is strong. The increase in operational capacity and human resources of the gendarmerie to target 35,000 men by 2025 attests to a full measure of the security risks that surround us.  If we add to this domestic enemies, who will not tire of trying to undermine national harmony, we cannot skimp on means or neglect efforts in the security network of this land of all our heroes.

Last week, Dakar hosted the second edition of the Africa Air Force Forum, an unprecedented opportunity for the Chiefs of Staff of the African Air Forces to exchange with industrialists from around the world, in order to adapt the defense of the continent to new conflict paradigms. The significant bet made on drones and the need for adaptation of our armies, as underlined by General Souleymane Sarr (Chief of Staff of the Senegalese Air Force), provides logic in all of Senegal’s Defense and Security Forces to get in tune with the challenges of our world. The President of the Republic Macky Sall had very powerful words yesterday, on the occasion of the inauguration of the new headquarters of the National Gendarmerie in the Samba Diery Diallo Barracks. This ceremony informed, in more than one way, the dynamics of the rise in power of the Defense and Security Forces of Senegal, it will also have been marked by this desire, after all the series of abuses against the defense and security Forces of Senegal, to return to a republican mystique, to the sacredness of the State, to the desire to preserve the honourability of the profession of arms and to ultimate respect for the Nation.

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He will say to General Moussa Fall: “What matters above all is the soul of the good soldier, anchored to the foundations of the Nation, to the requirements of the State and to the values of the Republic. This soul of the good soldier, anchored to the foundations of the Nation, to the requirements of the State and to the values of the Republic, we find it in you, Lieutenant General Moussa Fall, High Commander of the Gendarmerie and Director of military justice. This is why I take the opportunity of this ceremony to renew to you all my pride, my satisfaction and my confidence in the rigor, loyalty, professionalism and sense of duty with which you carry out your mission at the head of the national Gendarmerie.”

There is a lot of symbolism in seeing an Executive salute, out loud and in front of everyone, the role of a weapon bearer in the preservation of the Republic, in the defense of people and property, as well as in the protection of a republican and democratic ideal. This, with respect for authority and rigor in the execution of various responsibilities. There is a lot of optimism if the Senegalese ranks brim with good soldiers and good officers. You would think you were reading Sun Tzu who taught that “the General is the bulwark of the State; if this rampart is strong, the State is strong; if this rampart is weak, the State will be weak.” The intrinsic link between the quality of officers and soldiers as well as the vitality of States can no longer be denied. In just a few years, we have observed all attempts at sabotage to undermine the relationship between the executive power and the Defense and Security Forces, in order to make it a path for a shift in authority. The numerous insults, the most absurd allegations and the trials of intent at the various commands had the sole objective of discrediting the sovereign bodies over a long time and succeeding in undermining the morale of the troops to make them don the caps of insolence and disobedience. We should not expect many potential putschists or coup-makers. The incorrect and impertinent soldier is the right officer for them.

As much as a land may be prestigious, men only commit themselves to the image of their leaders. The troops also know how to give a leader worthy of his prerogatives the deference he deserves. The lectures of President Macky Sall will have made it possible to have an upgrade of our Defense and Security Forces of which nothing in the future should deter this momentum. “I would like to reassure you, borrowing this time-honoured expression from our military jargon, that the morale of the troop is high.  Under your leadership, you have never skimped on resources and means to improve the living and working conditions of the gendarmes. The entire staff, through me, will be eternally grateful to you.” These words from General Moussa Fall say a lot about the bet made on a political-security option by giving the Defense and Security Forces the means to defend us and by trusting entirely in their republican sense to protect the Nation and bring it into line. above everything.

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President Macky Sall made “improving the living conditions of soldiers”, both at a social and material level, a pillar of his governance. Being confronted with cases where soldiers, moreover injured, take to the streets to demand payment of bonuses and compensation is an embarrassing situation that the authorities should pay more attention to. There is a code of honour for legionnaires which teaches that in combat, we never abandon our dead, our weapons, nor our wounded.

My heart is always broken when I see soldiers injured in the course of their mission and service to the Nation, begging to be heard, demanding rights and asking for the most basic of things which is support. They paid with their flesh and blood for their mission to protect Senegal and to be of service to it. It is in sincere service that fate was able to fall on them and give them wounds which are above all trials for all those who bear them. These injuries are also a burden for their families and their brothers in arms. If I have one appeal to make as this Army Day approaches, it is for all our injured soldiers to be compensated as soon as possible. There are sons of Senegal who gave everything, they deserve a comeback more than all.

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

  • Translation by Ndey T. SOSSEH