Senegal calls on France to close army bases

France should close its military bases in Senegal, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye said on Thursday as the country prepared to mark the 80th anniversary of a notorious colonial slaughter.

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Faye said that France's President Emmanuel Macron had admitted that his country's troops were responsible for a "massacre" of Senegalese soldiers in 1944.

Faye hailed the acknowledgement but said that allowing French bases in the country was incompatible with national sovereignty.

"Senegal is an independent country, it is a sovereign country and sovereignty does not accept the presence of military bases," Faye said in an interview at the presidential palace.

Faye swept to power in March's elections promising to assert Senegal's sovereignty and an end to dependence on foreign powers.

He, however, maintained that the act did not constitute a break with France, like those seen elsewhere in West Africa in recent years.