Both the government and the Collectif des cadres casamançais, a coalition of Casamance civic and business leaders, have categorically rejected the idea of a referendum on Casamance's status, as proposed by leaders of the MFDC. Ansoumane Badji, the secretary-general of the MFDC, wrote to Jean Ping, the chairman of the African Union, in mid-February, asking for mediation to help to organise and monitor a referendum for the region's independence. Similar proposals have come from MFDC leaders in recent months, but the government resolutely rejects the idea. The latest proposal comes weeks after Southern Sudan voted for independence, with secession set for July. MFDC leaders argue that this would be the most effective tool to end decades of conflict, but parallels between the two cases are tenuous; the government insists that a negotiated settlement can come only once violence has totally ended.

Although the nature and the intensity of the conflict is indeed different, the lack of progress towards a resolution of the situation in Casamance has nevertheless called for renewed efforts and more creative negotiation initiatives. Pierre Goudiaby, the leader of the Collectif des cadres casamançais has lobbied the president, Abdoulaye Wade, to take up the MFDC's offer of dialogue launched after more than three-quarters of members of the group's political wing voted in favour of such a move. In a highly symbolic gesture, the head of the Catholic Church in Senegal, Cardinal Théodore Adrien Sarr, made an unplanned visit to Ziguinchor to meet MFDC leaders and local authorities in an initiative to support the renewal of the negotiating process. At the moment, Mr Wade seems more interested in punishing the recent attacks while avoiding a return to the negotiating table, which has proven ineffective in previous attempts. After the deaths of the three soldiers in the latest clash-which happened after the letter was revealed-the army stepped up the offensive in the department of Bignona on February 26th-27th, killing an undetermined number of rebels, at the cost of three more soldiers. The government therefore now seems further away from making concessions to the MFDC.