Nine veteran Senegalese soldiers will finally return home on Friday after President Emmanuel Macron’s government lifted the six-month residency requirement on their military pension in January.
Yoro Diao, 95, is delighted to leave his small studio apartment in a Parisian suburb to rejoin his family after nearly 20 years of living thousands of miles from his family.
“This is a victory, a second victory after the war. We are allowed to go home while receiving our old-age benefits, we will live well there,” he said.
“It’s not at my age that I’m going to go off and marry a lot of women. What am I going to do with my benefits? I’m going to live well, eat, walk around the village. That’s heaven.”
The highly decorated soldier, who was awarded France’s highest honor, the Legion of Honour, in 2017, has fought in Indochina and Algeria.
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“First I gave France my blood – even if I didn’t really bleed – and my youth. My youth, my memory. I’ve forgotten everything now. I’ve forgotten everything. I’m old,” he said.
Hundreds of thousands of African soldiers fought for France in both world wars and against independence movements in Indochina and Algeria.
But just this year, the surviving veterans of the so-called “Senegalese infantry” had to live in France for half a year, otherwise they would lose their pensions.
In January, the French state lifted the condition, saying they could return home forever and continue receiving the €950 monthly allowance.
He said he would also pay for airfare and transportation for veterans who chose to leave.
But for most people it’s too late. Only a few dozen former gunmen remain alive and some are too weak to go home.
“When she first met Diaw and his companions 10 years ago, many of them lived alone in small hostel rooms and shared a common bathroom,” said Aïssata Seck, President of the Association for the Memory of Senegalese Riflemen.
She says they were effectively trapped away from home because of the six-month rule, but couldn’t bring their families to France on their meager income.
Only after years of pressure were they finally granted French citizenship in 2017 by then-President François Hollande.
Another victory for these old people who go home on Friday where they can finally live in peace surrounded by their families.
