For Senegalese landmine victims,a forgotten conflict lives on

A conflict that has been slowly burning for the last 40 years leaves a legacy in the bush in the way of mines and other unexploded ordnance.

Conflict between the separatist rebels of the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC) and the Senegalese military once led residents to abandon the village entirely. Now, constrained by fears of mines leftover from the Senegalese military, which once built and outpost here, the few residents who have returned in recent years are restrained in their movements in and out of the village, and their ability to farm the surrounding countryside, where fruit falls and rots with no one to gather it. Mines have been found in nearby villages, and at a nearby school building, long since abandoned.

Periodically these mines have begun to be cleared the long process of clearing thick bush then sweeping the area with metal detectors to clear it of any dangers.

The rebels still have a few holdouts in the forest. Nine years ago, a group of de-miners were kidnapped on a de-mining mission. After government negotiations, the women were released a month later. It took another month for the rest of the team to be freed.

Fully de-mining all of the Casamance will likely take a total, or near total, defeat of the fractured rebel groups who remain – and who, despite their diminished capacity for war and stature among a conflict-wary populace, continue to hold out in the margins.

For the full story on Al Jazeera visit HERE words by Nick Roll.