Sidy Mohamet
June 28, 2024 at 11:31
This Friday, the Dakar Military Court will rule on an unprecedented and sensitive criminal case. The trial concerns Warrant Officer I. Sagna, Staff Sergeant P. Badji, both serving in the 22nd Reconnaissance and Support Battalion (Bra), as well as Private 1st Class S. Coly assigned to the Train Battalion. These soldiers are charged with complicity in undermining state security, undermining national defense, endangering the lives of others, and conspiracy against state authority.
The three accused are suspected of collusion with the enemy, having provided sensitive and strategic information to the combat leaders of the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC). The events allegedly took place in 2022 during a security operation carried out by units of the National Army in the south of the country.
Using ultra-modern means of communication in a war zone, company commanders intercepted conversations and telephone numbers revealing military positions. Staff sergeant P. Badji allegedly tried to divert his section of thirty men towards a route different from that leading to the village of Djibidione. According to the prosecution, armed MFDC fighters were prepositioned on the path indicated by Badji, suggesting that he wanted to trap his own men in an ambush.
During his hearing by the Dean of Investigating Judges Oumar Maham Diallo, Staff Sergeant Badji denied the facts, affirming that he did not recognize the Sindia-Djibidione axis although he claimed to know the right path. The other defendants, Warrant Officer I. Sagna and Private S. Coly, face similar charges. The investigation made it possible to identify them as the interlocutors disclosing to the MFDC combatants information relating to the positions of the Army in operation in Casamance.
