By Adama Makasuba
Salif Sadio, the leader MFDC rebels has dismissed claims that his men are engage into illegal timber logging trade, adding that part of their deals for independence is to end illegal timber trade in the region.
Speaking to reporters over the weekend, he said: “we are fighting illegal timber logging and that’s part of our conditions for our freedom because any timber you see in Senegal comes either from Casamance or The Gambia or other countries. It is not true, they are lying. But Senegal is jealous of our forest in Casamance, this is why they are destroying our land and it is part of the deal we signed in Rome and we will not sign that deal and come and violate it.”
Meanwhile, he said: “The hostage survived the fight and if we are given food to eat or not, I will not tell you that but they will tell you that because I am a leader and I don’t want to lie. They were war prisoners and they were having heavy weapons and they came to fight us and we captured them. Now if we are to let them off, we must talk, they will tell you if they are given food to eat or not or if they are in good condition or not.”
“The people who came to fight us were the men of ECOWAS in our country and we fought them back to where they came from and held some of them as war prisoners with their heavy weapons and some of them died. We seized many of their weapons. We returned the corps because we know that only the children of the poor people are dying here in the bush because none of the Senegalese presidents’ sons or their close relatives died here,” he added.
“Their release will be based on conditions, if they fulfill the conditions they will be released and if they will not be released the conditions will entail it. Let me tell you if they were after a truckload with timbers, they would not have come with heavy machine guns but they came with heavy guns. And those we captured were fighters who were armed with dangerous guns and they first attacked us and we fought from morning to dust before they retreated and I recalled my troops for the sake of the children and poor people on the border,” he confirmed.