The massacre by the French army in 1944 in Senegal of African workers who were demanding their salaries was “premeditated” and “camouflaged”, and its balance is undoubtedly largely underestimated, denounces a white paper delivered Thursday to the Senegalese president, of which AFP obtained an exclusive copy. These tirailleurs originating from several West African countries (Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Haute-Volta become today le Burkina Faso), who had been repatriated after having fought for the French army in Europe during the Second World War, demanded the payment of arrears of sales before returning home. The trauma linked to their massacre is still alive in Senegal and in the other countries concerned. The killings “were intended to convince the colonial order that it could not be curbed by the emancipatory effects of the (Second) World War” on the colonized, affirms the Comité de chercheurs auteurs de ce Livre blanc. This is “the reason why the operation was premeditated, meticulously planned and executed (…) in coordinated actions”, they point out. According to the balance sheet of the French colonial authorities at the time, at least 35 tirailleurs had been killed by colonial troops and French gendarmes, on the orders of French officers, during this massacre in the camp of Thiaroye, près de Dakar, where they were gathered. The Committee of Researchers affirms that this figure is undoubtedly very much underestimated, for “the most credible estimates put the figure at 300 to 400”.
Thiaroye: The massacre of the tirailleurs by the French army in 1944 was “premeditated” and “camouflaged” (report)
