Peace negotiations under the auspices of Saint Egidio community took place in Rome and on 14 December 2012, President Sall announced that Casamance would be a test-case for advanced decentralization policy.

Besides Jola, the area also harbors Mandinka, Mankanya, Pulaar (a Fula group), Manjak, Balanta, Papel, Bainuk, and a small minority of Wolof.

[20][14] Zinginchor and coastal areas underwent developmental expropriations, and many local officials from the northern regions gave relatives and clients access to land.

[21] In the 1980s, resentment about the marginalization and exploitation of Casamance by the Senegalese central government gave rise to an independence movement in form of the MFDC, which was officially founded in 1982.

This initial movement managed to unite Jola and other ethnic groups in the region, such as Fulani, Mandinka and Bainuk, and led to rising popular resistance against the government and northerners.

This caused the MDFC to form a more radicalized, armed wing that engaged in guerrilla combat against the Senegalese army and symbols of statehood[20] in 1985.

[9] The Senegalese government answered by dividing the Casamance province into two smaller regions, probably in order to split and weaken the independence movement.

[8] The discovery of oil in the region emboldened the MFDC to organise mass demonstrations for immediate independence in 1990, which were brutally suppressed by the Senegalese military.

Several ceasefires were agreed during the 1990s, but none lasted, often also due to splits within the MFDC along ethnic lines and between those ready negotiate and those who refused to lay down their weapons.

By this time, the rebels had established bases in Guinea-Bissau, reportedly being supplied with arms by Bissau-Guinean military commander Ansumane Mané.

When Senegal decided to send its military into Guinea-Bissau to fight for the local government against Mané's forces, the latter and the MFDC formed a full alliance.

[5] Meanwhile, tensions within the MFDC resulted in rebel leader Salif Sadio killing 30 of his rivals; however, one of his main opponents among the insurgents, Caesar Badiatte, survived an assassination attempt.

[3] In a renewed offensive against the separatists between April and June 1999, the Senegalese military shelled Casamance's de facto capital Ziguinchor for the first time, causing numerous civilian casualties and the displacement of 20,000 people along the Senegal–Guinea-Bissau border.

In addition, the party's reputation as a genuine separatist forces started to suffer, as it became evident that many MFDC commanders were less motivated by politics and more by money in their insurgency.

[9] Peace talks resumed in January 2000, with both sides attempting to end the military conflict and aiming at restoring political and economic normality to Casamance.

As result, the peace talks collapsed in November 2000, with MFDC leader Augustin Diamacoune Senghor declaring that his group would continue to fight until achieving independence.

[27] Its results proved partial, and armed clashes between the MFDC and the army continued in 2006, prompting thousands of civilians to flee across the border to the Gambia.

His death hastened the split of the MDFC, which divided into three major armed factions, led by Salif Sadio, Caesar Badiatte, and Mamadou Niantang Diatta respectively.

[36] On 1 May 2014, one of the leaders of the MFDC, Salif Sadio, sued for peace and declared a unilateral ceasefire after secret talks held at the Vatican between his forces and the Government of Senegal led by Macky Sall.

[3] The Economic Community of West African States responded with a military intervention in 2017 during which MFDC rebels supported pro-Jammeh forces.

[37] Jammeh ultimately fled, resulting in Adama Barrow becoming the Gambia's president; he was known as being close to Macky Sall, meaning that the MFDC lost an important foreign ally.

[38] Leaders of the MFDC, however, have denied responsibility for the execution-style killing, which they say was connected with the illegal harvesting of teak wood and rosewood from the forested region, not the gathering of firewood.

[3] With aid by the military of Guinea-Bissau, Senegalese troops overran four MFDC bases in Blaze forest during February, namely those at Bouman, Boussouloum, Badiong, Sikoun.

[3] Despite the offensive's success, the Senegalese military admitted that several rebel bases remained active,[2] as neither the hardline Diakaye faction of Fatoma Coly (which supports Sané and Diatta) nor the groups of Sadio and Badiatte had been targeted.

[3] However, security analyst Andrew McGregor argued that the ease with which the Senegalese military had overrun the MFDC bases during the offensive pointed at the separatists having become extremely weak.

Its aim was to close the border to Guinea-Bissau for the rebels and reduce wood as well as drug smuggling, and the army claimed to have captured several MFDC posts and bases.

[43] In early August 2022, Caesar Badiatte signed a peace deal with the Senegalese government following mediation by Guinea-Bissau's President Umaro Sissoco Embaló.