It was, for them, the fight of a lifetime. This Wednesday, the Ministry of Veterans Affairs and Memory confirmed that a dozen Senegalese riflemen would be able to return to their country thanks to exceptional financial aid from the State.
“It is the honor of the Republic to care about those who have given so much for its defense,” declared the Secretary of State in charge of the dossier Patricia Mirallès. This aid, the amount of which is not yet known but has been decided “in agreement with the parties concerned and the associations”, aims to finance the return trip, the move and the resettlement of these people in Senegal. Until then, they had to live at least six months a year in France to receive their minimum old age and live decently.
“Some have accumulated several decades in France, it’s a whole life they have to win and so we help them with that too. This important and exceptional aid is part of the solidarity that the State has towards veterans and which will allow these skirmishers to return home in good conditions”, recalled one of the advisers of the ministry. .
” Better late than never “
The Department of Veterans Affairs today estimates the number of Senegalese tirailleurs living in France at 37. The first starting salvo, in April, should concern a dozen former soldiers, all aged between 85 and 95 years old.
“For us, it is an immense joy, it is a date that we have been waiting for”, rejoiced on Franceinfo Yoro Diao, 95, former Senegalese rifleman. The ex-soldier, engaged in Indochina and Algeria, described this aid as a “bargain”, even if he deplores the wait for decades: “Better late than never. »
In early January, the film “Tirailleurs” by Mathieu Vadepied with Omar Sy recalled the importance of soldiers born in the former French colonies in Africa, enlisted in the French army. Created under the Second Empire (1852-1870) and dissolved in the early 1960s, the corps of “Senegalese Tirailleurs” took part, under the colors of France, in the Second World War and the wars of decolonization, particularly in Indochina and in Algeria.
This Monday, February 27, a ceremony was held in their honor under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris in the presence of Patricia Mirallès and the Minister of National Education, Pap Ndiaye.