By Nelson Manneh
A man, who survived sporadic gunshots by Senegalese forces, has narrated how the Senegalese military ambushed and opened fire at them while they were navigating through the border into Gambian territory.
Amadou Juma Camara, a native of Kampanti in Foni recounts: “The incident happened on Friday night around 11 PM, when I went to Cassamance with a vehicle to carry logs; three of us were inside the vehicle (Amadou Juma Camara, Malick Faal, and OusmanSowe). We drove to Cassamance, but while we were on our way home, we met with soldiers suddenly in the dark.”
Camara said while he was driving, they heard noise in the bush, but before he could stop the vehicle, the soldiers started to shoot at them.
“They shot at the vehicle several times, so we decided to come out of the car and ran into the bush. The soldiers continued to shoot at the vehicle while we ran in different directions,” he said.
As he ran, the survivor said he realized that blood was oozing from his leg and he later turned and saw Ousman Sowe.
“I told Ousman that I was shot at, we struggled to walk to Kanilai, but Malick Faal was not with us because he was nowhere to be seen,” he said.
Mr Camara said the vehicle they went with to Casamance was burned down to ashes by the soldiers.
“As I am talking to you, Malick Faal is nowhere to be seen. We don’t know anything about his whereabouts, but we suspected that he was arrested by the soldiers,” he alleges.
Mr Camara said he is responding to treatment, but he is concerned about the whereabouts of Malick Faal.
He added: “I don’t know what is happening to him as of now. We want the authorities to help us enquire about the whereabouts of Malick.”
Mr Camara said he was shot three times, one in his chest and the other two bullets hit his leg, adding: “I was lucky that the bullet hit one of my rib bones.”
He said all the bullets were removed from his body at the hospital.
