Nearly 80 years after the events, France recognized on Thursday November 28 the massacre that occurred on December 1, 1944 at the Thiaroye military camp. Hailed by Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, this act nevertheless raises reservations among the committee responsible for removing the gray areas surrounding this colonial crime.
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With our correspondent in Dakar, Léa-Lisa Westerhoff
If the France speaks of “massacre”, “ she no longer has a choice », says the historian Mamadou Dioufpresident of the commemoration committee. For him, this recognition comes much too late, because, in his words, “ from 1944, the massacre is not in doubt “. “ Whether France is in good faith or not is not our problem. What we want is the truth and the whole truth about what happened that morning of December 1, 1944. “, he declared during a press conference this Friday.
How many riflemen were killed? Where were they buried? This is the whole challenge of this committee made up of six historians and a documentarian. After spending ten days sifting through France’s numerous archive services, the committee announced that it had discovered new archives: dozens of death certificates of African riflemen, who died at the Dakar hospital between the end of 1944 and early 1945.
However, it is too early to draw hasty conclusions. “ It will be a long-term job “, warned this team of historians who plan to submit a white paper compiling all of their conclusions, next March, to the authorities Senegalese.
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