Macron Admits For First Time Widespread Slaughter Of African Soldiers By French Army
Date
11/29/2024 9:10:17 AM
(MENAFN- Trend News Agency)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 29. For the first
time, French President Emmanuel macron has referred to the 1944
mass slaughter of West African soldiers by the French army as a
massacre, Trend
reports, citing French media.
According to the sources, Macron made the acknowledgment in a
letter addressed to the authorities in Senegal.
This statement, ahead of the 80th anniversary of the killings in
the village of Thiaroye, located on the outskirts of Senegal's
capital, Dakar, is seen as a response to the diminishing influence
France holds in its former West African colonies.
Somewhere between 35 and 400 West African soldiers, who threw
their hats in the ring for the French army back in 1940, met their
untimely end at the hands of French soldiers. The killings took
place in the wake of a revolt on December 1, 1944, sparked by a
lack of pay.
The West Africans had served in the French army as part of a
unit called "Tirailleurs Sénégalais" (Senegalese Riflemen), a
colonial infantry corps. Historians believe that disputes over
unpaid salaries led to tensions, and on December 1, French troops
rounded up and shot many unarmed soldiers.
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