![[Mouvement des Forces democratiques de Casamance flag]](../images/s/sn}mfdc.gif)
Last modified: 2012-11-17 by rob raeside
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image by Ivan Sache, 30 October 2012Casamance, the southernmost region of Senegal, is separated from the rest of
the country by Gambia. The Jola people predominates in the region, while the
Wolof people predominates in the rest of Senegal.
MDFC was founded in
Sédhiou on 4 March 1947 by Victor Diatta, as a movement that supported BDS (Bloc
Démocratique Sénégalais), the main anti-colonialist organization founded in 1948
by Léopold Senghor. The MFDC initially lowered its claim for the independence of
Senegal, somewhat merging with BDS. However, MDFC was never formally suppressed.
The aspiration to independence resumed in Casamance in 1981 when a strike broke
out in the Djignabo College of Ziguinchor. On 26 December 1982, a movement
reclaiming the heritage and name of the early MFDC organized a demonstration in
Ziguinchor, during which the flag of Senegal hoisted over the government
building was replaced by a white flag, symbol of peace. The demonstrators
claimed that the Senegalese flag was lowered down and handled with respect,
while the government called it an act of sedition and organized a strong
repression. Several members of MDFC formed a clandestine, armed movement, which
started a guerilla still active three decades later, therefore one of the oldest
guerilla in Africa.
A truce agreement signed on 31 May 1991, as well as subsequent peace
agreements signed on 26 December 1999 and 16 March 2001, failed to restore
peace; every time, a particular branch of MDFC, disapproving the agreement
signed by the political branch of MDFC, quickly resumed armed struggle. In that
period, Atika, the main armed branch of MDFC, was involved in violent actions
that claimed several hundreds of lives and ravaged the economy of Casamance,
once the most prosperous region of Senegal. Thousands of locals exiled to Guinea
Bissau, Gambia, or other regions of Senegal. On 31 December 2004, the rebels and
the government signed in Ziguinchor a new agreement that was deemed "historic",
since all the MFDC factions, including Atika, validated it. After the death of
its historical leader, the priest Augustin Diamacoune Senghor, in early 2007,
the rebellion was expected to extinguish because of lack of leadership, internal
division and misunderstanding between the armed and political branches of the
movement. However, the most radical factions of MDFC resumed once again armed
struggle. In December 2007, the government's emissary in Casamance was murdered;
nobody claimed responsibility for the act, which was not condoned by the MDFC
political branch. In June and September 2009, unrest reached new heights,
yielding a massive intervention of the Senegalese Army and Air Force, aimed at
suppressing the military bases of MDFC. The operation gained little success,
while attacks against officials and ambushes against soldiers were not stopped.
Another round of discussions between the rebels and the government, mediated by
the Community of Sant'Egidio, was initiated on 13-14 October 2012 in Rome.
Ivan Sache, 30 October 2012
The early flags of MDFC were reported by Lucien Philippe and Michel Corbic, Vexilla Francia No. 7/53, November 1997.
![[Mouvement des Forces democratiques de Casamance flag]](../images/s/sn}casa.gif)
image by Ivan Sache, 22 February 2001
Flag unconfirmed.
MDFC initially adopted a plain green flag, symbolizing agriculture and forest of Casamance, and a complicated emblem. The authors do not say explicitly whether the emblem was used on the flag. During the 26 December 1982 demonstration, a white flag was hoisted. Minahan shows a possible rendition of this flag with a green star in the middle, not supported by any other available source.
1983 flag
![[Mouvement des Forces democratiques de Casamance flag]](../images/s/sn}mfdc1.gif)
image by
Jaume Ollé, 27 August 1999
In May 1983, MDFC started to use a vertically divided yellow-green-red flag, charged in the middle with a white star. Yellow stands for wealth, green for forest and agriculture, and red for blood. The white star stands for the Casamance people.
1988 flag
![[Mouvement des Forces democratiques de Casamance flag]](../images/s/sn}mfdc2.gif)
image by Jaume Ollé, 27 August 1999
In March 1986, Mamadou Nkrumah Sané, then jailed, replaced the "confusing" yellow stripe by a white stripe. Approved by Augustin Diamacoune Senghor, the flag was officially adopted on 5 February 1988. Whether the second flag actually superseded the first one is not known.
image by Ivan Sache, 30 October 2012
Two recent photos indicate that
MDFC - or, at least, one of its armed branches - uses a new flag, designed with
a different geometrical arrangement of the elements of the flag adopted in 1983.
The flag is horizontally divided green-yellow with a red triangle placed along
the hoist, charged with a white star tilted to the upper hoist.
The two
photos showing the flag are, unfortunately, undated and without caption, but
they are linked to recent articles on the conflict:
http://grat.over-blog.com/article-en-casamance-au-senegal-les-rebelles-du-mfdc-tuent-avec-les-armes-iraniennes-96221543.html
http://yveslebelge.skynetblogs.be/archive/2012/09/29/casamance-oubliee.html
Ivan Sache, 30 October 2012
