The Gambia Government through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has strongly condemned what it calls abhorrent and despicable atack by armed criminals which resulted in the murder of thirteen innocent civilians including children in the Southern Senegalese region of Casamance on Saturday.
The incident occurred when the civilians went to the bush to collect firewood for domestic use. The criminal gang then attacked, killed 13, injured seven and two others managed to escape.
“The Ministry extends its condolences to the government of the Republic of Senegal and the bereaved families. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirms its commitment to working with the Republic of Senegal to bring about durable peace and security in the Senegambia region. We pray for Allah’s infinite mercy for the departed souls and their families,” the release read.
Meanwhile, the Senegalese government has vowed Sunday to be “relentless” in tracking down and bringing to justice those responsible for the executions.
President Macky Sall, condemning an “armed attack of rare barbarity”, summoned his national security council and ordered a ministerial delegation to the scene.
“A hard and relentless hunt will be conducted to find the perpetrators of this despicable act,” interior minister Aly Ngouille Ndiaye told Senegalese press agency APS during a visit to survivors at the hospital in Ziguinchor, the region’s capital.
The attack happened on Saturday in Borofaye forest in the commune of Boutoupa-Camaracounda.
According to the government, ten of the 13 killed were shot dead, two were stabbed to death and one was burned. Half a dozen more were wounded, with the most seriously hurt being transferred to Dakar for treatment.
The as yet unidentified group stopped the young men and rounded them up before shooting them coldly, survivors told AFP.
“They made us lie face down and started firing,” a 45-year-old father of two with two wives said Sunday at Ziguinchor Ayib Ly hospital as he received treatment for injuries to his back and foot.
“Injured people trying to escape were finished off” by the attackers, said another survivor, Amadou Diallo.
Additional reporting from AFP
