Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade announced his country was taking back military bases held by former colonial power France at midnight as the country marked 50 years of independence yesterday.
“I solemnly declare that from 00H00 [midnight] April 4 Senegal will take back all the [military] bases formerly held by France and intends to exert its sovereignty,” Wade said in an address to the nation on public TV.
“Regarding the time frame for the release of these bases, I have asked the prime minister and army chief of staff to begin talks with the French side,” he said.
PHOTO: EPA
Wade was speaking on Saturday on the eve of celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of Senegal’s independence from France, on April 4, 1960.
As Wade spoke, French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux was arriving to represent France at yesterday’s ceremonies, which were to include a military parade in which French soldiers were to take part.
“This year will be different from the others,” Wade said at the start of his speech.
Following independence, Senegal had agreed to let its former colonial masters France keep military bases there, he said.
“Over the years, this situation has appeared more and more incongruous and has often been felt by our populations, particularly young people, civil servants and the army, as an incomplete independence,” he said.
In Paris, a French defense ministry spokesman said talks between the two countries were ongoing on future cooperation and the maintenance of a smaller French force on Senegalese territory.
On Friday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy raised the question of their military presence in Senegal in a message to Wade, in which he said France wanted to maintain political and military cooperation.
He is not attending the ceremonies in Senegal marking the 50th anniversary of independence.
France and its former colony Senegal have been bound by a defense agreement since 1974, and 1,200 French soldiers are currently “prepositioned” in Dakar at one of three permanent French bases in Africa.
On Feb. 19 Wade’s spokesman Mamadou Bamba Ndiaye said “the French military bases will leave Dakar in virtue of an agreement signed by both parties” ahead of the independence celebrations.
The French defense minister confirmed the same day that Paris intended to close its military bases in Senegal but intended to preserve a “center of military cooperation with a regional purpose.”
At the end of February Sarkozy announced that only 300 soldiers, 900 fewer than there are today, would stay in Dakar.
The death of a former head of China’s one-child policy has been met not by tributes, but by castigation of the abandoned policy on social media this week. State media praised Peng Peiyun (彭珮雲), former head of China’s National Family Planning Commission from 1988 to 1998, as “an outstanding leader” in her work related to women and children. The reaction on Chinese social media to Peng’s death in Beijing on Sunday, just shy of her 96th birthday, was less positive. “Those children who were lost, naked, are waiting for you over there” in the afterlife, one person posted on China’s Sina Weibo platform. China’s
‘NO COUNTRY BUMPKIN’: The judge rejected arguments that former prime minister Najib Razak was an unwitting victim, saying Najib took steps to protect his position Imprisoned former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was yesterday convicted, following a corruption trial tied to multibillion-dollar looting of the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) state investment fund. The nation’s high court found Najib, 72, guilty on four counts of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering related to more than US$700 million channeled into his personal bank accounts from the 1MDB fund. Najib denied any wrongdoing, and maintained the funds were a political donation from Saudi Arabia and that he had been misled by rogue financiers led by businessman Low Taek Jho. Low, thought to be the scandal’s mastermind, remains
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday announced plans for a national bravery award to recognize civilians and first responders who confronted “the worst of evil” during an anti-Semitic terror attack that left 15 dead and has cast a heavy shadow over the nation’s holiday season. Albanese said he plans to establish a special honors system for those who placed themselves in harm’s way to help during the attack on a beachside Hanukkah celebration, like Ahmed al-Ahmed, a Syrian-Australian Muslim who disarmed one of the assailants before being wounded himself. Sajid Akram, who was killed by police during the Dec. 14 attack, and
RSS