Senegal seems to be sinking into crisis since the announcement of the controversial postponement of the presidential election.
Demonstrations against this postponement and the power of President Macky Sall took place on Friday in Dakar as well as in several cities across the country.
They were violently dispersed.
In Saint-Louis, in the north of the country, a second-year geography student, Alpha Yoro Tounkara, was killed.
“He was not only a brilliant student, but also a loved and respected comrade.
His warm presence and his contagious enthusiasm will be missed by all those who were lucky enough to know him,” writes Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Diouf, president of the geography club at Gaston Berger University, where the young man studied.
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“A Constitutional coup d’état”: tension rises in Senegal after the postponement of the presidential election
In Dakar, the police used tear gas extensively to disperse the hundreds of people who sought to gather near the Place de la Nation.
All access had been closed by the authorities.
The highway and major routes were also blocked.
Protesters responded by throwing stones and setting up barricades with makeshift objects, including planks and stones, and setting tires on fire.
This mobilization throughout Senegal is the first major protest since the postponement of the vote decreed by Macky Sall, just three weeks before the deadline, in the midst of a political fight over the candidates retained or rejected for the vote.
The National Assembly approved on Monday a postponement until December 15 and also voted to maintain Macky Sall in power until his successor takes office.
These decisions opened a serious political crisis in Senegal and plunged the country into a period of uncertainty.
Journalists targeted
Reporters Without Borders was “outraged” by the targeting of at least 5 journalists by police during demonstrations in Dakar.
A journalist from the Seneweb site was brutally arrested and hospitalized following discomfort, according to the NGO.
Another journalist from the newspaper Enquête was hit in the jaw, and tear gas was targeted in particular at the headquarters of the private television station Walf TV, whose license was recently revoked by the authorities.
At the Masjidounnour mosque in Dakar, for the great Muslim Friday prayer, imam Ahmed Dame Ndiaye protested against the political situation.
“Even the president can make mistakes and in this case it is up to us to tell him the truth,” he said, adding that “no one has the right to watch society being destroyed ".
In the morning, teachers set the tone with walkouts in schools.
At the Blaise Diagne high school in Dakar, hundreds of students left their classes at 10 a.m.
“This is just the beginning of a fight.
If the government persists, we will be forced to take other actions,” Assane Sene, a unionized history and geography professor at this establishment, told AFP.
Another demonstration planned for Tuesday
The postponement of the presidential election for 10 months has sparked outrage widely shared on social networks.
The opposition calls for a “constitutional coup”.
She suspects a scheme to avoid the defeat of the candidate of the presidential camp, or even to keep President Sall at the head of the country for several more years.
Read alsoPostponement of the presidential election in Senegal: what is Macky Sall playing at?
A group of 14 opposition candidates filed an appeal with the Supreme Court in the afternoon.
Attempts to demonstrate since the announcement of the postponement have been repressed and dozens of people arrested.
Dozens of people have been killed and hundreds arrested since 2021 during different episodes of protest.
The Aar Sunu Élection collective (“Let’s protect our election”), which is planning another demonstration on Tuesday, insisted on its desire to protest peacefully.
A dozen candidates opposed to the change of calendar, out of the 20 selected by the Constitutional Council, expressed their desire for convergence with civil society.