Violent protests erupt after President Macky Sall postponed presidential elections by a number of months.
A scholar has been killed within the Senegalese metropolis of Saint-Louis throughout violent protests in opposition to the postponement of the presidential election.
Clashes between safety forces and protesters gripped Senegal’s capital and different cities on Friday, the primary widespread unrest over the delay of a vote that many worry might result in protracted instability.
In a press release on Saturday, the Ministry of Inside and Public Safety mentioned it had been knowledgeable of the dying of scholar Alpha Yero Tounkara and that it might be investigated, however denied its forces have been accountable.
“The Defence and Safety Forces didn’t intervene to keep up order on the college campus the place the dying occurred,” it mentioned.
It was not instantly clear if protests continued on Saturday. Additional violent standoffs with safety forces will add to fears of democratic retreat.
Lower than three weeks earlier than the February 25 presidential vote, parliament voted to push it again to December, sealing an extension of President Macky Sall’s mandate, which has raised issues that one of many remaining democracies in coup-hit West Africa is underneath risk.
Sall has reached his constitutional restrict of two phrases.
The vote in parliament passed off after opposition lawmakers have been forcibly faraway from the chamber as the controversy was ongoing.
After parliament voted, 39 lawmakers within the opposition coalition, Yewwi Askan Wi, and a number of other opposition presidential candidates filed authorized challenges in opposition to the delay with the Constitutional Courtroom.
In an try to quell the anger, Sall mentioned he had postponed the election to revive belief within the electoral course of after the listing of candidates was put into query.
However anger remained excessive, with critics denouncing the transfer as an “institutional coup”.
“We’re fed with Macky Sall, he already had two phrases what else does he need?” a protester informed Al Jazeera.
