80 Years After Killings, Senegal Wants the Facts From France
The mass slaying of West African soldiers by colonial forces at the end of World War II in Senegal remains shrouded in secrecy. But Senegal’s new government won’t abide the mystery.


The Thiaroye military cemetery in Senegal has 35 graves representing West African soldiers that France said were killed by French Army soldiers in 1944. Historians said the actual death toll may be closer to 400. Sylvain Cherkaoui for The New York Times

By Elian Peltier and Saikou Jammeh
Reporting from Thiaroye, Senegal

Dec. 1, 2024
The middle school students in Senegal listened quietly one afternoon this past week as their history teacher told a story most of them knew already. ... In 1944, French colonial forces massacred West African soldiers who had returned from France after fighting in World War II, said the teacher, Aminata Diedhiou.

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A 15-Second Blood Bath

On the morning of Dec. 1, 1944, French colonial forces gathered hundreds of West African men temporarily stationed at a garrison in Thiaroye, on the outskirts of Dakar, then the capital of French West Africa. ... It was supposed to be their last stop before home: Hailing from a dozen African colonies, the men had fought for France in the war, been detained in Nazi-run camps for years and were now awaiting financial compensation for years of service. ... The money wasn’t coming.

As tensions escalated between French and West African soldiers who had once been brothers in arms, French officers vowed to “bring back order,” according to a French military report written a day before the killings. ... They brought machine guns to Thiaroye, two battalions, a tank and other military vehicles to “show so much superiority that the mutineers don’t think about resisting,” the report read.

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Around 9:30 a.m., they fired more than 500 rounds of ammunition within 15 seconds, according to archives consulted by Martin Mourre, a French historian. ... The first official death toll mentioned 35 West African deaths — an “indispensable surgical operation,” an act of self-defense against armed and aggressive men, claimed the French officer in charge, in a report written days later.

But historians from France and Senegal say that the real death toll is probably closer to 400, and that the West African soldiers were not armed. ... They argue that discrepancies in military reports and the preparedness of French troops pointed to a premeditated massacre. The lack of information around the identities of the victims and the whereabouts of their remains are other signs that France tried to cover up a crime, they say. ... “Hiding documents was a part of the imperial policy,” Mr. Diouf said. “We have the French version. We need to write our own narrative.”

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