By appointing him Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Macky Salla renewed confidence in General Mbaye Cissé, a native of Kaolack. © JA EDITION: DR
TEN THINGS TO KNOW – Appointed on April 6th to the position of Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Senegal, General Mbaye Cissé officially took office on April 10th. On the 18th, he participated in the farewell ceremony of his predecessor, General Cheikh Wade, at the Lat Dior military camp in Dakar, where he was preparing to take up residence. The location is close to his former office, which focused on the presidency: there he served as chief of staff to the head of state.
Between the terrorist threat in the East, the separatist conflict in Casamance and political tension one year before the presidential elections, Mbaye Cissé takes office in a tense context. A retrospective of the career of this army general who could have become a philosophy professor in another life.
1. Macky Sal
The Head of State made a wave of appointments at the beginning of April, two years after carrying out several reforms in the army, including increasing the retirement age of generals, which allowed him to keep some of his faithful with him.
By appointing him Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the Senegalese President renews his confidence in General Cissé, who until then was his personal Chief of Staff. In this last role, the Kaolack native had the role of advisor to the president on defense and security issues or the appointment of officials.
Since his election in 2012, Macky Sall has increased the army budget. It also pays special attention to the training of military personnel and For modernization of equipment. A rise in power that is accompanied by an increase in the workforce, which the Head of State intends to double by 2025 (the army currently has 15,000 men and women).
2. Prytanee
Mbaye Cissé debuted at the elite army school, from which many of his predecessors and chiefs of staff from the subregion came: the military pritané of Saint-Louis.
An experience that I was very nostalgic for. A member of promotion 77, as a child he dreamed of wearing the uniform of these officers that he witnessed at the national holiday ceremony, every April 4th. That same outfit your parents asked you to wear when you came home.
Now a member of the school’s alumni association, he says he is “proud” of his teammates’ and prytanée’s journey. “That’s what this school is: it teaches us what a State is, it prepares us to serve. »
3. From father to son?
Could he have heard it anywhere other than in the army? The policeman's son himself grew up in the barracks, where he followed his father's path as a child.
He would like his own children to follow in his footsteps by joining the prytanée, but they failed the difficult and very selective entrance exam. A sign, the soldier believes, of the republican character of the establishment where he studied.
4. Philosopher and poet
“My teachers destined me for a teaching career”, he confided to JA last January. After his bachelor's degree, the troop's son entered Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, where he studied psychology and sociology, before earning a master's degree in philosophy. Studies that he enjoys and make him think about pursuing a civilian career for a while.
“But we quickly returned to what we know best,” he added. After finishing university, it was therefore at the National School of Active Officers in Thiès that he continued his training, before entering artillery schools in France and the United States. He will also attend the prestigious Ecole de guerre in Paris.
Armed with military distinctions, he can also be proud of having won first prize in the international poetry competition dedicated to Senegalese skirmishers.
5. Networks
The graduate with a literary profile is the former director of the Center for Advanced Defense and Security Studies (Cheds, equivalent to the School of War in France), an institute that he helped modernize and open to civilians. He also worked there as a coach. Therefore, he knows most of the serving officers, but also some senior administrative officials.
As director of Cheds, he participated in the organization of several editions of the Dakar Forum on Peace and Security, an event organized annually in the Senegalese capital. helped open its international Issomente network.
6. Intellectual
His academic training and his ability to reflect and anticipate make him considered an intellectual in the army troops, where his frankness, his sense of diplomacy and his strategic positioning are appreciated.
Eager to promote the successes of the Senegalese army, he published two books, one on the military history of his country and the other on the Senegalese intervention in Gambia after the coup. in 1981. He also published several articles in specialized magazines.
7. Priorities
One of the main challenges he will face will be managing to control the country's eastern borders, particularly with Mali. The Senegalese army has been scrupulously scrutinizing this part of the territory for several years, fearing incursions by terrorist elements or groups.
As it is responsible for border surveillance, it is the gendarmerie that is on the front line in this area – its men also benefit from training from French elements based in Senegal. Dakar also has the Surveillance and Intervention Rapid Action Group (Garsi), an elite gendarmerie unit. The country has also installed new air bases in several locations to be able to react quickly in the event of an attack.
8. Anti-terrorism
He is considered one of the mentors of the army's anti-terrorism doctrine. In 2019 and 2020, before being appointed head of CHEDS, he was in fact chief of staff to General Birame Diop, who preceded him on the army general staff and with whom he participated in the reflection on how to protect Senegal from possible attacks.
Until now, spared from the attacks that many of its neighbors were victims of, the Senegalese capital is nevertheless preparing itself. Thinking about the answer, Macky Sall also appealed to General Saïfoulaye Sow, head of the Interministerial Framework for the Coordination of Anti-Terrorism Operations, placed under the supervision of the Ministry of the Interior.
9. Controversy
The general should be inaugurated the day after a controversy that aroused much comment among observers of Senegalese political life. On March 31, the opposition coalition gathered around Ousmane Sonko, who had planned a demonstration in Dakar, publicly stated that they had withdrawn from their rally. At issue, according to the leaders of Yewwi Askan Wi (YAW), “extensive consultations with senior officers of the country's defense and security forces”.
Failing to deny the holding of these meetings, the army reacted through a press release “inviting politicians from all quarters and civil society to keep the national army out of the political debate” and assured that they intended to “maintain their stance republican and dedicate themselves to their sovereign missions”. majority.
10. Predecessor
Did your predecessor, General Sheikh Wade, suffer from this controversy? This military warrior who spent fifteen years in the elite commando unit was appointed in March 2021. The former commander of zone 5 of Ziguinchor (Casamance, south) also had to carry out several more or less successful offensives in this separatist zone, which has been the object of Macky Sall's special attention since he came to power.
After a first assault carried out in February 2021, the army decided again to attack the rebel bases in March 2022, after having lost several of its soldiers at the hands of the separatists: an episode that shook the army and greatly angered Macky Sall. General Cheikh Wade also pays for the failure of the “neutralization” of warlord Salif Sadio, which was one of the objectives of the last offensive in casamance ?
