PARIS (AP) — Some of the last survivors in France of a colonial-era infantry corps that recruited tens of thousands of African soldiers to fight in French wars around the world will be able to live out their last days with relatives in Africa. after a u-turn by the French government on his pension rights.
The decision to make it easier to claim their pensions follows a years-long campaign on behalf of “tirailleurs Sénégalais”, who were recruited to fight from Senegal and other former French colonies in sub-Saharan Africa.
It also coincides with the theatrical release in France of a film highlighting the sacrifices made by African soldiers on the bloody French battlefields of World War I. “Tirailleurs” features actor Omar Sy, a star of the “Jurassic World” franchise.
To qualify for their French pensions, veterans of the infantry corps founded in 1857 and disbanded a century later had to spend at least six months a year living in France.
That rule separated elderly ex-combatants from their families in Africa and some died alone, far from their loved ones, says Aïssata Seck, who campaigns for them. Her grandfather was also a “tirailleur”.
“It was extremely painful for the families and for us,” Seck said in a phone interview Wednesday with The Associated Press. “They live for the most part in extremely different circumstances in France, far from their families.”
In all, 37 of the former tirailleurs, most of them recruited to fight in Senegal, as well as Mali, Mauritania and Guinea, are known to live in France, Seck says.
The youngest of them is 90, and a dozen live in separate rooms in a house in the Paris suburb of Bondy, where Seck serves as an elected official. They served as tirailleurs during the independence wars in Vietnam and Algeria, he said.
“They are gradually disappearing, due to their great age,” he said in the AP interview.
Many tens of thousands of African conscripts served in tirailleur regiments, in colonial wars, in both world wars, and in France’s wars in Vietnam and Algeria before being disbanded in the early 1960s.
The pension decision concerns only 22 of the former soldiers who receive a monthly payment of 950 euros ($1,000), the government’s Ministry of Solidarity told The AP.
They will no longer have to spend six months a year in France to be eligible and will continue to receive their pension payments even if they move permanently, the ministry said.
The decision, which applies a “principle of tolerance” for veterans, will be formalized in a government letter to be published in the coming days, the ministry said.
“After long years of fighting, we have finally won,” Seck tweeted. “Former tirailleurs will be able to see life in their countries of origin.”
In Senegal, the head of the National Office for Veterans and War Victims said the decision was overdue.
“For a long time, veterans asked to return with their pensions but they were unsuccessful. This decision will relieve them. These veterans live alone in their homes, they are unaccompanied, they live in extremely difficult conditions,” said the officer, Captain Ngor Sarr.
Sarr, 85, fought for the French army in Algeria and Mauritania and then moved to France in 1993 so he could receive his pension. He said that he then lost it when he returned to Senegal 20 years later.
Others said the decision came too late.
“Many soldiers died, they did not have this opportunity despite the role they played in the liberation of France,” said Mamadou Lamine Thiam. His father also fought in Algeria and died in 2015, at the age of 85.
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AP writers Sam Mednick and Babacar Dione in Dakar, Senegal, contributed.
