New film Tirailleurs highlights France's forgotten Senegalese troops - in pictures

After the First World War broke out, France recruited across its West African colonies to transform the tirailleurs into a force designed to hammer the Germans on the Western Front

Diogo Dieye 103, a former Senegalese tirailleur, who fought for the French during World War II, in Lebanon and in Libreville, poses for a portrait on his bed in Thies on December 22, 2022. - The Senegalese Tirailleurs where colonial infantry, forced to fight in France’s wars through the 19th and 20th centuries. A tribute is paid to these soldiers in the film "Tirailleurs", by director Mathieu Vadepied, screened on December 20, 2022 in Dakar during a special evening in Senegal, where it will be released on January 6, 2023 after its release in France on January 4, 2023. (Photo by JOHN WESSELS / AFP)

Demba Sao, 86, a former Senegalese tirailleur. The tirailleurs were forced to fight in France’s wars in the 19th and 20th centuries

A portrait and certificates of Diogo Dieye on the wall in his room

Demba Sao, who fought for the French for eight years - including two years in Algeria, where he was wounded - walks up stairs in Thies

A tribute is paid to these soldiers in the film Tirailleurs, by director Mathieu Vadepied, which was released in France on January 4

Demba Sao walks down a road in Thies

The hands of Diogo Dieye, 103

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