Deep impact

But all they have gotten were "broken promises, intimidation, the destruction of our ecosystem and the catastrophic moving of villages. Economic development has gone backward", he added.

Gathered in the square of one of the new settlements at Foth, 120 km north of capital Dakar, Omar Keita and around two dozen other heads of families were quick to show their anger.

"We want our land back and our village rebuilt so we can go back to how we were living before," Keita, 32, said.

He said he was not given a new home and showed where his wife and three children have lived for the past six years — a single room "loaned by my big brother", a mattress lying on the floor.