By Daniel Flynn

DAKAR, Feb 23 (Reuters) - When separatist rebels gunned down her boyfriend last week, Codou Ndow said they shattered her future -- but she hopes Senegal's elections on Sunday can bring peace for the sake of her unborn child.

Her head draped in a black veil, the Muslim woman said her lover Boubacar was killed by mistake in an ambush as he returned from work in Senegal's restive southern region of Casamance.

His bullet-riddled body was found with two dead deserters from the rebel Movement of Democratic Forces of Casamance (MFDC), one of Africa's oldest insurgencies.

"We had been together for eight years and we planned to get married ... I am so angry with the rebels," said the 25-year-old, her eyes swollen from crying. "I hope these elections can change things."

As the West African country prepares for Sunday's presidential polls, a series of attacks in Casamance have stirred fears that rebels might attempt to disrupt the ballot.

The army has stepped up security in the region and civilian authorities have said they will remove polling stations from remote areas in case rebels attempt to spoil the vote.

Hundreds of people have been killed since the MFDC took up arms in 1982 accusing the government of mainly Muslim Senegal of neglecting the Christian region, the country's foremost tourist destination and home to some 800,000 people.

But the conflict has largely slipped off the electoral map, as the national campaign focused on high prices and unemployment which have forced thousands of young men to flee to Europe.

Octogenarian President Abdoulaye Wade, favourite to win a fresh term, had pledged when elected in 2000 to resolve the Casamance conflict in his first 100 days in power.

Seven years later, Wade made little mention of the insurgency during a weekend trip to Casamance, focusing on promises to improve air and sea links to the region, cut off by the 300 km (190 mile) wedge of Gambia from the rest of Senegal.

Opponents say Wade should have done more after a 2004 peace deal with moderate MFDC leaders failed to stop the violence.

"Abdoulaye Wade has said this is a Senegalese problem," said Socialist Party candidate Ousmane Tanor Dieng, a leading challenger at Sunday's polls. "But one cannot resolve the situation in Casamance without Guinea Bissau and Guinea."

RESURGENCE OF VIOLENCE

Violence has flared over the last year as a militant group led by commander Salif Sadio, who rejected the 2004 deal, fought rival MFDC factions and the Senegalese and Guinea Bissau armies, displacing thousands of people.

The murder of a top ruling party official in the regional capital Ziguinchor in late December appeared to be an explicit challenge to Wade's authority -- the president offered $100,000, a passport and an airline ticket for finding the killers.

With the death of the rebellion's historic leader, Catholic priest Father Augustin Diamacoune Senghor, in Paris last month, the government lost a moderate interlocutor in separatist ranks.

Few ordinary Senegalese in the teeming coastal capital Dakar seem to blame Wade directly for not bringing peace -- a feat the previous Socialist government also failed to achieve.

"Wade has made efforts for peace, but it is difficult," said Pap Camara, cousin of the dead Boubacar.

While violence has declined since the mid-1990s, Casamance's lush forests bordering Guinea Bissau are dotted with rebel and government landmines which have killed many people and maimed nearly 800 -- a lingering problem for the next government.

"These days nobody supports the rebels. Casamance is just two provinces, it could never be independent," said Marie-Louise, one of many Casamance migrants working in Dakar. (Additional reporting by Diadie Ba)

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