Senegal arrests 16 for Casamance massacre

Men pray next to a coffin during a burial in a cemetery in the regional capital Ziguinchor, southern Senegal following an attack by armed men in the Bayotte forest. (AFP)

ZIGUINCHOR: Senegalese police have arrested at least 16 people suspected of involvement in a January 6 massacre of 14 young men in the troubled region of Casamance, sources said Sunday.
The arrests are the first in connection with the killings in the region separated from the rest of Senegal by The Gambia and which has been the target of an independence campaign for more than 35 years.
A rebel movement in the area has blamed the massacre on a feud in the illegal teak logging industry, ending a period of relative calm in the region.
Around 20 men were collecting wood in the protected forest of Bayottes, close to the regional capital of Ziguinchor when a 15- to 20-strong armed group attacked them.
The government says 10 were shot dead, two were stabbed to death and one was burned. Half a dozen more were wounded. Days later a 14th body was found.
One of those arrested was a woman, sources with knowledge of the investigation said.
Four of the victims of the killings in the village of Toubacouta were members of a local forestry surveillance committee, the APS news agency reported, quoting a witness.
The victims were looking for firewood, according to friends who escaped and their families. However, several sources told AFP they were potentially involved in the illegal logging trade in a region with plentiful rosewood and teak, both highly prized in China.
One resident told AFP Sunday he and 15 others, including a woman, had been detained by troops in the early hours in Toubacouta. “They combed the village,” said the man, who would not give his name.
A local youth association head, Abdou Sane, was quoted by APS as saying that “19 young men and a woman were arrested this morning by police. They are being held at Ziguinchor police station.”
Army chief of staff General Cheikh Gueye meanwhile said his troops had “yet to finger anyone” but “we are in no hurry.”
A ministerial fact-finding mission was headed to Casamance in southern Senegal on January 7, after the killings, which were the first upsurge in violence in the isolated region in years.
Justice Minister Ismaila Madior Fall on January 9 a crackdown on illegal logging in a region which, until the massacre, had enjoyed a period of relative calm since President Macky Sall came to office in 2012.