22 people arrested in connection with Casamance murders

Police in Senegal have arrested 22 people suspected to have been involved in last week’s murders,a statement issued on Sunday said.

14 loggers were killed in the Southern forest region of the country last week.

The police said among those arrested were four young members of a village forest monitoring committee who were convicted and released last October following a conflict with logging companies.

This arrest operation is part of the ongoing judicial inquiry following these killings.

A few days before the massacre, the atmosphere seemed conducive to a revival of the peace process in Casamance, where the rebellion has been active for some thirty years.

In his end-of-year message, Senegalese President Macky Sall called for a decisive step towards definitive peace in the West African nation.