Landless Peasants of Diokoul Will March on July 18, 2011 To Claim Their Land
Landless peasants of Diokoul and CICODEV Africa to march against land grabs
PRESS RELEASE
Diokoul, Senegal. July 11, 2011--18 hours GMT
99 peasants of four villages in the rural community of Diokoul, Louga region, just filed a declaration
of march planned for July 18, 2011 with the Sub-Prefect of Ndande and the Prefect of Kébémer to
claim the land they have been dispossessed by the farm Mametola, allocated to a political-religious
authority.
By resolution No. 004 AND / CRDD of 21 July 2005, the Rural Council of Diokoul affected 2070 ha of
land to a private company called Mametola, thus dispossessing 99 farmers in four villages of Diokoul,
Nguer-Nguer, Yadiana and Dara. This expropriation without consulting the farmers had a dramatic
impact on food security for farmers and their families as well as on the sustainability of natural
resources (1).
In order to defend their case together and to fight this injustice, the peasants gathered in the
Collective of Landless Peasants of Diokoul in partnership with CICODEV Africa (Institute for Consumer
Citizenship and Development) held a meeting on Friday 1 July 2011 to assess the results of different
actions they have undertaken until now.
Faced with the inertia of the authorities have resolved to carry out concrete actions on the ground
to be restored to their rights. The landless peasants of Diokoul have filed a declaration of march with
the Sub-prefect of Ndande on Monday July 11, 2011.
The main objective of the march-scheduled for Monday, July 18, 2011 at 10am- is to deliver to the
Chairman of the Rural Council (PCR), a letter in which the Landless Peasants of Diokoul to attract his
attention that the farm Mametola is not located on the site which it had been allocated during the
deliberations of the Rural Council in 2005.
As a result, the Collective of Landless Peasants asks the PCR:
- To take the necessary measures to require the farm Mametola to move to the site it has
been allocated in the minutes of the deliberations of the Rural Council.
- The Rural Council to make a new deliberation and affect to the landless peasants the land
handed back by the farm Mametola.
- To inform them of the date on which the Rural Council will hold its meeting which will
consider their request for allocation of land, so they can attend the meeting in accordance
with the Local Government Code.
(1) On this subject see the study by CICODEV Africa: "The village where you can hear the pestle: Land Grab in West Africa. Export or feed the people. Impacts on rural consumers”. February 2011. www.cicodev.org