Violent protests erupt after President Macky Sall postponed presidential elections by a number of months.
A pupil 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 concern may result in protracted instability.
In an announcement on Saturday, the Ministry of Inside and Public Safety stated it had been knowledgeable of the dying of pupil Alpha Yero Tounkara and that it could be investigated, however denied its forces had been responsible.
“The Defence and Safety Forces didn’t intervene to take care of order on the college campus the place the dying occurred,” it stated.
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 beneath risk.
Sall has reached his constitutional restrict of two phrases.
The vote in parliament came about after opposition lawmakers had 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 Court docket.
In an try and quell the anger, Sall stated he had postponed the election to revive belief within the electoral course of after the record 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 instructed Al Jazeera.
