“The rebel leader, Salif Sadio, is no more. He died a natural death,” Walf’s correspondent reports on Monday.

Walf’s correspondent quotes the village chief of Dialankine, in the community of Oulampane, in the Department of Bignona.

Salif Sadio has simultaneously held political and military positions at the head of his faction of the MFDC since his break with Father Diamacoune, the charismatic leader of the independence movement who died in 2007, as well as with Mamadou Nkrumah Sané, its founder.

Salif Sadio considered himself the only legitimate leader of the MFDC, even though his rival César Atoute Badiate continues to reign on the southern front of the rebellion.

Over 40 years after the start of the conflict, with which three successive Senegalese presidents have been confronted (Abdou Diouf, Abdoulaye Wade then Macky Sall), Casamance has oscillated between war and peace, within the framework of a low-intensity conflict which has reappeared on center stage following the recent deadly clash.

With some reporting from euro.dayfr.com