A French administrative court has ruled that the state was responsible for failing to properly investigate the death of an African soldier during the 1944 Thiaroye massacre in Senegal. The Paris court found that French authorities provided false information to the soldier’s family and failed to establish the precise circumstances of his death or the location of his burial. The tribunal awarded €10,000 in damages to the soldier’s son, who accused the French state of concealing mass graves and blocking justice.
The massacre occurred on December 1, 1944, when French forces fired on West African riflemen, known as tirailleurs senegalais, who were demanding their pay. The precise death toll, circumstances of the killings, and location of the victims’graves remain unresolved.
Biram Senghor, the soldier’s son, welcomed the verdict but deemed it inadequate. “I am truly glad that French justice has condemned the French state, because the French state has been unjust – an ungrateful state, “he told RFI. Senghor argued that France owes the families of the tirailleurs far more than a symbolic sum and must also pay damages and interest, as France has been prevaricating and refusing to pay for 82 years.
Following the massacre, France had wrongfully characterized the soldier as a deserter, claimed his wages had been paid in full, and described the French troops’action as a proportionate response. These claims were later acknowledged as historically inaccurate. In 2019, France admitted the soldier had not deserted, and in 2024, President Emmanuel Macron formally recognized the events at Thiaroye as a “massacre “and that the soldier had died “for France.”The trauma of the massacre continues to be felt in Senegal and across West African countries from which the soldiers were drawn.
Source: RFI
