The Kekendo and Ndef Leng Movements of the Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar (UCAD) held a press conference on Friday 26 March 2021 at around 6 pm to explain the clashes the day before which resulted in several injuries, including four serious cases evacuated to the main hospital in Dakar. In front of the journalists, the students held a responsible speech and called for overcoming intercultural differences for the best interests of the nation.
The leaders of the Association of Students for the Development of Casamance, better known as Kekendo, and those of the Association Culturelle des Sérères called Ndef Leng called for calm, serenity and the overcoming of hatred in the temple of knowledge. Bassirou Thiaw, spokesman for the Ndef Leng movement, made it clear that the nation takes precedence over everything, and intellectuals must not enter into an inter-ethnic conflict that threatens to destroy the cultural legacy of the ancestors. “We are brothers and sisters. We have customs, values that our ancestors bequeathed to us together, and it is not up to us, the intellectual youth of today grouped around the Kekendo and Ndef Leng movements, to spoil this legacy that the ancients bequeathed to us.” , he said.
Returning to the disastrous events of the night of Thursday, March 25, 2021, he recalls that “the Ndef Leng movement is not a violent movement and it will never be.” He thus calls for an immediate overcoming of this misunderstanding which risks giving a bad image to UCAD and the Republic of Senegal. “No longer accept to be divided. Let us always try to find amicable solutions,” he added.
The Kekendo spokesman reiterated that these events are regrettable and should not be repeated on the university campus. “People may believe that a conflict between Kekendo and Ndef Leng presupposes a confrontation between the Diola ethnic group and the serene ethnic group. Actually, that’s not it. It’s unfortunate on both sides. We want peace at the university and in Senegal,’ he said.
The calm returned to the University Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar since the movements in question called for a rapid overcoming of the conflict in order to avoid that the principles that found the Senegalese nation, namely the cousinage to joke, be violated for personal or community interests.
