{"id":311030,"date":"2017-04-16T06:24:42","date_gmt":"2017-04-16T06:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=311030"},"modified":"2017-04-16T06:24:42","modified_gmt":"2017-04-16T06:24:42","slug":"france-gives-citizenship-to-28-african-ww2-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=311030","title":{"rendered":"France gives citizenship to 28 African WW2 veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">French President Francois Hollande has given citizenship to 28 Africans who fought for France in World War Two and other conflicts.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Hollande said France owed them &#8220;a debt of blood&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The veterans &#8211; many from Senegal, and aged between 78 and 90 &#8211; received their new certificates of citizenship at the Elysee Palace in Paris.<\/p>\n<p>Campaigners have long been calling for the rights of the veterans, long-term French residents, to be recognised.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;France is proud to welcome you, just as you were proud to carry its flag, the flag of freedom,&#8221; said President Hollande.<\/p>\n<p>More naturalisation ceremonies are expected to follow for other veterans in France.<\/p>\n<p>One of those granted citizenship on Saturday, Mohamed Toure, said the gesture will go some way towards healing old wounds.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;President Hollande did what none of his predecessors ever imagined. And that repairs a lot of things,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img js-image-replace\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/8B33\/production\/_95653653_3e1827a1-40d6-4be2-b91b-d47d6c4d99b1.jpg\" alt=\"African war veterans at a citizenship ceremony in France\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><\/span><\/figure>\n<p>The granddaughter of a Senegalese soldier, Aissatou Seck, who is herself deputy mayor of a Parisian suburb, has been a lead campaigner for African veterans&#8217; rights.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, she started a petition that gained tens of thousands of signatures in less than a week.<\/p>\n<p>The veterans have long been struggling for recognition and equality in France.<\/p>\n<p>Until 2010, they received lower pensions than their French counterparts.<\/p>\n<p>Their ambiguous status also meant they lacked access to other benefits and sometimes found it difficult to travel, said the BBC&#8217;s Africa editor, Mary Harper.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media-landscape has-caption full-width\">\n<figure style=\"width: 976px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image__img responsive-image__img--loading js-image-replace\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef-1.bbci.co.uk\/news\/624\/cpsprodpb\/DC7D\/production\/_95654465_689b3fa5-f365-4b26-a4fe-7025e1b3b61e.jpg\" alt=\"Veterans\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\" data-highest-encountered-width=\"624\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image copyrightEPA Many of the veterans wore medals pinned to their suits<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<p>In 1944, dozens of West Africans were shot dead by French troops when they mutinied over unequal pay and pensions.<\/p>\n<p>A few years ago, Mr Hollande acknowledged that French soldiers had gunned down their African counterparts.<\/p>\n<p>But many war veterans are still demanding a full apology.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>French President Francois Hollande has given citizenship to 28 Africans who fought for France in World War Two and other conflicts. Mr Hollande said France owed them &#8220;a debt of blood&#8221;. The veterans &#8211; many from Senegal, and aged between 78 and 90 &#8211; received their new certificates of citizenship at the Elysee Palace in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[6207],"class_list":["post-311030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","tag-france-gives-citizenship-to-28-african-ww2-veterans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=311030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311030\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=311030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=311030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=311030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}