by Mamadou Makhfouse Ngom

An International Forum for the Solidarity of Oppressed Peoples was held on 27th February in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, bringing together the And-Jëf–African Party for Democracy and Socialism (AJ-PADS), the Communist party of Zimbabwe, and members of the international Anti-Fascist Solidarity with Ukraine movement.

The forum was in support of four demands: No to the War in the Congo, Against NATO, for a just and durable peace in Ukraine, No to the Aggression Against the Alliance of Sahel States, and Solidarity with the Palestinian people.

It addressed the themes of the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), achieving peace in Ukraine, Western aggression against the Alliance of Sahel States, and the West’s support for Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza.

The panel included Cuban diplomat Carla Souza Montero, Khalil Haitham from the Palestinian Embassy, and Ian Beddowes of the Communist Party of Zimbabwe, all of whom welcomed the desire to imbue the new generations with the need to fight against the oppression of the imperialist forces that have for centuries enslaved the peoples of the South.

Mamadou Diop Decroix, Secretary General of AJ-PADS, spoke of the omnipotence of the capitalist forces allied to the digital giants as a key part of the oppression of Africa’s peoples and said it was crucial for the peoples of the South to change their stance towards the West whose policies have accentuated poverty in Africa and spoke of the omnipotence of the capitalist forces allied to the digital giants as a key part of the oppression of Africa’s peoples.

In this dynamic, he called for countries in the Sahel region to pool their forces to confront the

threats posed by Artificial Intelligence, which would strengthen the people’s surge against exploitation.

The author and film-maker, Professor Babacar Diop Bouba, called on governments, members of civil society and African youth to become aware of the threats posed by capitalist forces on the development of exploited peoples around the world.

Regarding the war in the east of the DRC, the Egyptologist referred to the writings of Sheikh Anta Diop, whose 1981 book Civilisation and Barbarism outlined the roots of the conflict between the Tutsi and Hutus that lies behind the current crisis in this part of the DRC.

He also warned of the regional implications of this conflict, which he said “results, in part, from the relics of Belgian colonisation. Moreover, we must not also lose sight of the role of capitalist Europe in this process of capturing Congo’s mineral wealth.”

The participants in the Forum also held a protest in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and Ukrainian exiles resisting the Banderite dictatorship in Kiev.