On January 4, the day the film was released Skirmishers, the French government announced that veterans of Senegalese, Malian or Mauritanian origin could now receive the full minimum old age pension (€950 per month) without having to live half the year in France. Those who participated in the world wars are dead. The last living skirmishers are only a few dozen.
It is a former skirmisher of 94 springs who receives us. Courteous, smiling and dynamic, his war companions are at his side in his 15 m² room. They too fought for France. “I present to you Monsieur Diop, a veteran of Indochina. He is 95 years old. He is not healthy, he has almost all diseases. After Mr. Mbodji, veteran of Indochina and Algeria“says Yoro Diao.
He wears his suit. The chest is lined with medals, not far from a dozen. When he joined the French Army, the question did not arise, it was a family tradition. “I wanted to join the Army, like my cousins, my parents… Otherwise, I would have been the laughingstock of my cousins who would have treated me like nothing. I needed a job “, remembers the skirmisher.
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French naturalized fighters only in 2017
He will be a stretcher-bearer on the battlefields in Indochina and Algeria. He saved lives and lost brothers in arms. “He was killed at my feet in Indochina in 1954, North Vietnam… “, shows the veteran on a souvenir photo album that never leaves him.
These former skirmishers who sacrificed their life and their youth were only naturalized in 2017. This is a first recognition and so far, to collect their minimum old age, they had to stay at least 6 months in France each year.
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For Aïssata Seck, president of the Association for the memory of Senegalese skirmishers, it is the end of a long administrative fight. “They will return definitively, it was their wish and it was the logical continuation for us of the various fights carried out. They will be able to live in a decent way in their countries of origin and surrounded by their own.»
Being able to find their family
So, this minimum old age, granted 60 years later, how does Yoro Diao take it? “Better late than never, of course. It may morally prolong our life“, does he think. “Do you know what a lizard bath is? It’s to go out in the sun with a deck chair», continues Yoro Diao. A life that the veteran now hopes to lead. “This is what is the centerpiece. And we are very happy!»
Glad to be able to reunite with his family soon. At home, daily life is not easy. “You have to go out all the time to look for a drink, bottles of water, to look for food, to get back on the bus to get treatment.says Yoro Diao. “Sometimes you get pushed around on the bus, sometimes you get your things stolen. Once I was told to be careful, that I had no strength for a veteran“, he adds.
And like him, they are nearly twenty ready to return home to the country.