Still around forty Senegalese skirmishers, soldiers from the former French colonies, are alive out of the hundreds of thousands of men mobilized. These could definitively return to their country of origin.
The Senegalese skirmishers are honored in the new film by Mathieu Vadepied which is released in theaters on Wednesday January 4, 2023 in theaters with Omar Sy as headliner. These soldiers from the French colonies in Africa and having fought in the tricolor army during several armed conflicts since the First World War have however long remained in the shadows, without a single war memorial to honor their memory. They were however numerous with 200,000 men in the ranks of the riflemen infantry corps during the war of 14-18, almost as many during the Second World War and more than 50,000 to be mobilized in Indochina. Many are also those who have fallen on the front.
Of these hundreds of thousands of men, mainly from Senegal but also from Mauritania or Mali, there are only a few dozen veterans still alive. There are only about forty left and have all passed the handsome 90-year-old according to the Veterans Affairs Office contacted by France info. Their involvement in the army, whether forced or voluntary, led them to the trenches of the Indochina war (1946-1954) or to the front lines of the Algerian war (1954-1962).
A definitive homecoming for the skirmishers
If the wars of Indochina and Algeria removed the Senegalese skirmishers from their lands, in the former French colonies, the end of the conflicts did not allow these men to return home. At least not definitely. As veterans of the French army, all these soldiers could claim the minimum old-age allowance of €950 but had to live for a semester in France to receive it. A condition against which the skirmishers held away from their families have been fighting for several years, supported by the Association for the memory of Senegalese skirmishers. And on January 4, 2023, in parallel with the release of the film “Tirailleurs”, good news reached the real soldiers. The French government has decided to no longer condition the payment of the minimum old age report France info. The approximately 40 men should therefore be able to return home permanently without giving up their rights. For the moment, according to the Ministry of Solidarity in the media, “twenty files” have already been validated.
It is a first victory after a long administrative fight but it is only a first step for the Association for the memory of Senegalese riflemen. The organization also wants Senegalese skirmishers to be able to receive CAF or disability pensions while residing year-round in their country of origin.