a return to the country without pension suspension

It is a victory snatched after more than five years of fighting against the French administration. Aged between 85 and 96, nine riflemen veterans of the wars in Indochina and Algeria have just returned to Senegal, their country of origin. And they won’t leave again. A derogation from the French government lifts the obligation for these veterans, who left Paris a few hours earlier, to reside at least six months in France each year to receive their pension. A few minutes before boarding, a veteran of the Algerian war cannot help thinking of the skirmishers who have already disappeared: “Many comrades who were with us died before benefiting from this measure”.

Harsh living conditions

A few days before their departure, it was in a home where they had to live for part of the year that the former skirmishers remembered their past and their sacrifices. In the foyer, the rooms without sanitary facilities are only a few square meters in size. Living conditions that shocked a little girl of skirmishers, who then embarked on a fierce fight to come to their aid. “As soon as they have their nationality, the first request I make is to decide whether they can return to their country of origin and continue to receive their minimum old-age allowance”.