Major General Fulgence Ndure -the Deputy CDS of the Senegalese military
By Fatou Sillah
Major General Fulgence Ndure, the Deputy Chief of Defense Staff of the Senegalese military, has firmly denied claims that the Senegalese army fired gunshots in The Gambia. He emphasized that these allegations are unfounded and clarified the situation regarding the involvement of Senegalese forces.
“We don’t fire bullets across the border into The Gambia. I can say this confidently because I was in Casamance for a while. However, the issue of the border is often surrounded by rumors and propaganda. I don’t know if you have any examples, but I don’t have any instances where we fired bullets into The Gambia. If it did happen, we would know during our patrols and address it accordingly, which is why we want to collaborate with them,” he said.
General Ndure also noted that sometimes, incidents occurring at the border are mistakenly attributed to Senegalese soldiers. He noted that a Gambian might kill another Gambian at the border, and people might mistakenly think a Senegalese soldier was responsible.
“Maybe a Gambian can kill another Gambian, and they say a Senegalese shot someone to create tension. In Dakar, people are killed every day, and it is just reported in the paper. But when it happens on the border, it takes on another dimension. They will say a Senegalese killed someone. When we conduct an operation, those who don’t want it to happen will say we beat someone, or killed two people, etc. But have you seen the people they claimed were killed?” he asked.
He further explained that their patrols in The Gambia are not due to the rebel group in Casamance but are aimed at securing the border.
“We conduct regular patrols with Mauritania and Mali, and I can tell you that we patrol with them every week, but they don’t have the MFDC. So, when we conduct patrols here, it’s not because of the MFDC. Wherever the MFDC is, if we need to go there, we will. We want to work with The Gambia to secure our borders because we have interests there, including drug trafficking and timber trafficking. The populations in Senegal and The Gambia are essentially the same, and when we patrol the border, we are doing it for everyone,” he concluded.