Armed rebels looted a convoy of cars on Tuesday morning near the village of Kaparan in the restive Casamance region of southern Senegal, feeding local fears that a new cycle of violence is starting to take hold.

Tuesday’s attacks took place 45 kilometres northwest of the main Casamance city of Ziguinchor at around 9 a.m. on the main road to the border with The Gambia, police and military officials said.

The attackers fired guns in the air and stole money, mobile telephones and jewellery from the passengers before retreating into the dense forest, according to local police. The Senegalese army pursued the suspects, a witness said.

Violence in Casamance has surged since mid-August when the Senegalese army launched new attacks against a militant wing of the Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC).

The hold-up in Kaparan is the fourth in Casamance’s Bignona region in the last 10 days. Officials and local residents contacted by IRIN attributed the string of robberies to a growing need for cash and supplies by the rebels.

Direct fighting between the Senegalese army and insurgents, which has forced about 15,000 Senegalese to flee their homes, has so far mainly been contained to an area in the far north of Casamance along the border with The Gambia.

The latest attacks have raised fears that the instability is spreading.

“We fear that there is a new cycle of violence starting up in Casamance,” said Moussa Dieme, who lives in a small village in the Bignona region. “Recently there have been attacks in each corner of our region, and each time there are these small incidents the situation gets a bit worse.”

Shopkeepers in the northern Ziguinchor suburbs of Kandialang, Lyndiane, Alouar and Kande Alassane told IRIN they had started drawing their shutters early to hurry home before dark.

“I have decided to close my shop early each day as a precaution,” said Mamadou Diallo. “Each day we hear that another rebel incursion is imminent, so it is best not to be too exposed.”

United Nations security officials had previously deemed the road between Ziguinchor and The Gambia secure, as it runs through a zone occupied by a pro-government faction of the MFDC.

However, all of Casamance has been under a higher security warning since a worker with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was killed and three others injured when their vehicle hit a mine on 1 September.

The MFDC has been leading an armed insurgency against the government of Senegal since the early 1980s. It is the longest running conflict in West Africa. The government and one faction of the MFDC signed a peace accord in 2004.