Mamadou Diouf delivers a speech after the official report on the Thiaroye massacre was handed over Senegal's president during a ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Dakar, on October 16, 2025. PATRICK MEINHARDT / AFP
French forces' 1944 massacre of African World War II troops demanding pay in Senegal was "premeditated" and "covered up," with previous death tolls vastly underestimated, according to a paper submitted to the Senegalese president.
According to French colonial authorities at the time, at least 35 infantrymen were killed during the massacre at the Thiaroye camp, near Dakar. This toll is likely significantly low, according to the committee of researchers who authored the report, who said the "most credible estimates put the figure at 300 to 400" deaths.
The 301-page report, submitted on Thursday, October 16, to President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, calls on France to "officially express its request for forgiveness to the families, communities and populations from which the riflemen came."
Subscribers only
