Following two days of unrest, authorities in Dakar, the capital, have started removing debris and securing looted businesses, and police believe the death toll from anti-government protests has risen to 15.
Over the phone, a police representative said that 15 people had been killed this week as a result of violent protests in various areas. On Saturday, much of Dakar was calm, but emotions remained strong.
The death toll has already surpassed that of multi-day marches held in 2021 by supporters of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko in protest of what they considered a politically motivated rape conviction.
Sonko maintains that he did nothing illegal.
Protesters reacted to Sonko’s call to oppose the government after his arrest on Thursday, which may bar him from running in the February presidential election.
Mobs damaged storefront windows and plundered at least two gas station shops in Dakar’s Ouakam and Ngor districts overnight, while a supermarket in Grand Yoff was set on fire and demolished. The roads had been charred by fire and were littered with debris.
There were just too many of them for the authorities to handle. Khadija, a local resident, stood outside the burned-out grocery store, recounting how the police attempted and failed to control the crowd with tear gas grenades.
The government has called in the army to aid the city’s numerous riot cops. On Saturday, a dozen or more military stood guard over the destroyed gas station in Ouakam, while other shops warily opened their doors.
Fearing the disruption, which nearby corner shop owner Abdou Ndiaye said was the worst he’d seen in 15 years of business, he closed early the previous two days and opened late on Saturday.
“We are so scared because you never know when the crowds will come, and when they come, they take… your goods, they are thieves,” he said in a room packed of bags of food and household items.
On the one side, there are protestors, and on the other, there are lawbreakers.
Sonko’s court case, as well as suspicions that President Macky Sall may try to circumvent the two-term limit and run again in the February elections, sparked the latest in a series of opposition protests in Senegal, which has long been regarded as one of the most stable democracies in West Africa.
Sall has made no remarks on the subject.
