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Alert

Film crew detained by Casamance gendarmes for three days

(MFWA/IFEX) - On 19 February 2011, a film crew made up of three Senegalese and two French citizens was arrested and detained for three days by the Gendarmerie in Ziguinchor, a town in the Casamance region.

The Senegalese members of the crew, Aliou Dabo, Boubacar Dabo and Mamady Daffe, who are members of a Dakar-based sports and cultural association, and their two French colleagues, David Perez and Franck Gerard Marie Bourel, were arrested for filming a mock rebel attack in the area, which has since 1982 been experiencing rebel activities from a group demanding independence from the Senegalese government.

The Media Foundation for West Africa's (MFWA) correspondent reported that the five persons were freed on 22 Febuary after appearing before the state prosecutor.

The crew members were accused of filming without a permit, a necessary requirement for non-Senegalese citizens.

The two French citizens who were in the country for the World Social Forum have since returned to France.