Twenty thousand troops in French West Africa recruited for the war effort. Seven thousand were sent to France to augment the 18,000 regular tirailleurs troops stationed in West Africa and the 29,000 already in France.
French West African officials first recognized African trade unions in 1937. The following year, African railway workers at Thies staged a strike on the Dakar-Niger line. Authorities reacted by calling in French troops to crush the strike. The violence that followed left six dead and at least 30 wounded.