Dakar, Dec 28 (APS) – The year 2024 saw a strong memorial sequence with the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the massacre of riflemen perpetrated on December 1, 1944 at the Thiaroye military camp by the French colonial army.
In August, the government set up a commemoration committee chaired by historian Mamadou Diouf, teacher-researcher at Colombia University (USA).
On December 1, 1944, several African veterans, returning from Europe after having participated in the Second World War, were massacred by French soldiers at the Thiaroye camp, in the Dakar suburbs, for having claimed their arrears of pay and bonuses. demobilization.
They were demanding their arrears of pay and demobilization bonuses, after having participated in the liberation of France under Nazi occupation.
Commonly called “Senegalese tirailleurs”, these soldiers came from the French colonies of Africa, Senegal, Benin, Mali, Ivory Coast, Chad, Central Africa, Niger, Gabon and Togo.
Senegal paid tribute to its fighters on 1is December in the presence of several African heads of state, including Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, current president of the African Union (AU) and Mauritania, and his counterparts from Gambia, Adama Barrow, Guinea-Bissau, Umaro Sissoco Embaló, from Gabon, Brice Oligui Nguéma, and Assoumani Azali from Comoros.
The Prime Minister, Ousmane Sonko and several members of the government, military authorities, elected officials, representatives of diplomatic missions and international institutions accredited to Senegal, were present at this ceremony.
Delegations from France, Cameroon, Djibouti, Chad and Burkina Faso also took part in this commemoration.
In a letter he addressed to Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Emmanuel Macron affirmed that “France must recognize” that there was a “massacre” in the Thiaroye military camp, in outskirts of Dakar, December 1, 1944.
The commemorations of the 80e anniversary of this massacre were marked by a laying of wreaths at the Thiaroye cemetery, a military and civil ceremony at the Lieutenant Amadou Lindor Fall camp in Thiaroye, the performance of the play ”African Dawn” at the Grand Théâtre National Doudou Ndiaye Coumba Rose.
The President of the Republic Bassirou Diomaye Faye announced five measures to “restore the memory and dignity” of the Senegalese riflemen.
”We must encourage this dynamic to restore the memory and dignity of the Senegalese riflemen. For my part, I will initiate several measures to reappropriate this common history with 16 brotherly African countries,” he declared in his speech, on the occasion of the commemoration of the 80e anniversary of the massacre of riflemen by the French colonial army, in Thiaroye, on 1is December 1944.
The Senegalese head of state notably indicated that a memorial in honor of the riflemen will be erected in Thiaroye, ”to serve as a place of contemplation open to all the nations from which they came,” as well as a center of documentation and research dedicated ”to preserve the memory” of these African soldiers who participated in the liberation of France from the Nazi yoke.
President Faye also announced that streets and public squares will bear the name of this tragic event, of these soldiers to inscribe their sacrifice in our daily lives.
He further stressed that ”the history of Thiaroye will be taught in educational curricula”, adding that Tirailleur Day will now be celebrated on December 1 of each year.
“Future generations will grow up with a thorough understanding of this episode of our past,” argued the head of state.
The commemoration committee chaired by historian Mamadou Diouf will submit a white paper to the Head of State on the Thiaroye massacre in April 2025.
FKS/OID/ASG
