Jawara requested Senegal to help him in defeating the coup. The Senegalese government responded vigorously, sending hundreds or even thousands of soldiers and put down the insurrection. This strong reaction was probably motivated by Senegal's own security concerns; its pro-Western stance caused tensions with other African states, and it was feared that neighbouring countries might use the Gambia, secessionists in the Casamance region (the region of Senegal south of the Gambian border), or other dissident groups to destabilize the Senegalese government. Specific threats came from Kwame Nkrumah's Ghana, Moussa Traoré's Mali, Ahmed Sékou Touré's Guinea, João Bernardo Vieira's Guinea-Bissau, and Muammar al-Gaddafi's Libya. While the Senegalese government speculated about some dangers, in the late 1980s it had border skirmishes with Mauritania. After the coup attempt in the Gambia, its government realized that its security forces were not adequate to stop or prevent political upheaval. Security of the region was becoming more and more difficult to maintain. The Gambia had previously lacked a proper army, instead solely relying on a police force, and subsequently began to set up its own military. Despite this, the Gambian government still felt the need to improve its position, and thus began to support a union with Senegal. This prospect also found renewed interest in Senegal. Léopold Sédar Senghor, first President of Senegal, was one of "" ("the three fathers") of Negritude—a literary and ideologically socialist movement of pan-Africanism, encouraging Africans throughout the Diaspora to embrace their shared culture. Senghor's belief in Negritude informed the possibility of unification between Senegal and the Gambia, and fostered the belief that unification would happen as an organic process. In fact, Senegal and the Gambia had already commissioned a United Nations report to study the possible plans and benefits of unification between the two countries in the 1960s. Period of the Confederation Union and early issues In December 1981, Senegal and the Gambia signed an agreement to form a confederation which officially came into existence on 1 February 1982. The two countries agreed to unite their militaries, security forces, economies and monetary systems. Politically, Senegal and the Gambia maintained separate cabinets, though shared power in a confederate government, with a Senegalese serving as president and a Gambian serving as vice-president. In the short term, the Senegambia Confederation was a pragmatic union based on a mutual security interest. As noted, the Senegalese government feared national instability caused by uprisings in either