Dakar: Senegalese security forces have released 30 people taken into custody during an operation that dismantled a symbolic separatist camp in southern Casamance, security officials revealed to AFP Thursday.
The area, which is partially separated from the rest of the west African country by The Gambia, is home to an independence rebellion that has simmered for nearly 44 years and persists today at a low, sporadic intensity.
The site on the outskirts of the region's main city, Ziguinchor, serves as a base for the Casamance Movement of Democratic Forces (MFDC), which has been fighting for independence since December 1982.
Officers could be seen repainting walls and erasing MFDC inscriptions on the headquarters while removing documents, sound equipment and chairs, in images published by local outlet Groupe Medias du Sud (GMS).
The 30 individuals arrested during the dismantling on Tuesday have been gradually freed, a security source told AFP Thursday.
"The last ones were released yesterday (Wednesday) on the instruction of the Ziguinchor public prosecutor," the source said.
Another source close to the MFDC told AFP Thursday that two people were still being held and that 33 had initially been arrested.
