_WORLD WATCH______________________________
____________________ Senegal ________________

Priest killed
Signs of fraying in cease-fire deal
A Catholic priest was shot and killed in Senegal in November, fueling fears that a peace agreement ending a civil war there may not hold.

Father Simeon Coly, of the Ziguinchor diocese in the Casamance region, was shot dead on the national north-south highway, which passes through Gambia. Father Coly was traveling in a taxi-bus. Armed men ordered the driver to stop, and when he refused, the bandits opened fire, injuring three of the occupants and killing two—one being Father Coly who was shot through the heart.

The murderous ambush is one of many signs of persistent violence in the Casamance region. Since 1982 the Movement of Democratic Forces for Casamance (MDFC) has struggled, through armed violence, to win independence. On March 16 an agreement was signed between the separatists and the government, after talks conducted under the mediation of Bishop Maixent Coly of Ziguinchor. But not all the rebel groups adhere to the agreement.

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