By pushing out French troops and welcoming Russians, countries in the west African region of Sahel had hoped for autonomy and stability. They’ve gotten death and chaos instead.
country: Senegal
Stay updated with comprehensive news on Senegal from Worldcrunch. Discover insights on Senegalese politics, economic strategies, societal issues, and cultural landmarks with translations from top international sources. Highlights include Dakar, Senegalese history, and cultural festivals.
The election of the new president of Senegal, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, paves the way for a period of deep uncertainty between Paris and Dakar, amidst the spread of an “anti-French sentiment” in West Africa.
At the end of October in western Senegal, a mob exhumed the body of a man, Cheikh Fall, then burnt it in a public square, on the grounds that he was homosexual. Since then, his relatives have been fleeing death threats.
The surprise election of Bassirou Diomaye Faye appears to be a wakeup call for French President Emmanuel Macron.
Conspiracy theories about France’s involvement in every twist and turn of African politics abound. Yet, writes Adama Wade for Dakar-based Financial Afrik, using leftover grievances of colonial influence is often a way for Africans to make excuses for their political failings.
The number of pirogues leaving the African coast to reach the Canary Islands more than doubled in 2023. Among them are many Senegalese fishermen forced to leave because of the scarcity of fish resources that trawlers, some of them foreign, come to fish in their waters.
President Macky Sall’s decision to suspend the February 25 presidential election has plunged Senegal into chaos. It’s also grim news for those seeking institutional reform across Africa, where Dakar was long seen as a democratic model.
Nearly 200 people are running to be the president of Senegal in the 2024 elections. What does this say about the state of Senegalese democracy? Financial Afrik takes a closer look.
The death of Nahel, a 17-year-old killed by a police officer in Nanterre, France, and subsequent riots shocked the world. It’s familiar territory for acclaimed film director Alice Diop, whose latest project, “Saint Omer,” was France’s nominee for the best foreign language film at the Oscars, examining what it means to be an immigrant, or the child of immigrants, in France.
The violence that erupted following the sentencing of opposition politician Ousmane Sonko to two years in prison left 16 people dead and 500 arrested. This reveals deep fractures in Senegalese democracy that has traces to France’s colonial past.
Novelists from Africa have been receiving some of the most prestigious literary prizes. But there are still questions around who are the world’s literary gatekeepers and what role writers from the Global South can play, writes Mauritian poet and photographer Umar Timol.
A top executive of the Miss Senegal beauty pageant dismissed accusations made by last year’s winner that she’d been raped, igniting furious debate across the West African nation about the treatment of women and the retrograde attitudes across society.
Femicide is a major problem in the West African country. A French entrepreneur of Senegalese origin is hoping her invention — App-Elles — can help end it.
After earning fame and fortune in France, fighter Souleymane Mbaye made good on a promise to open a professional-level boxing club in Dakar.
On the coast of Senegal, fish stocks have fallen 80% in the past year alone. The women fish processors of the region have been hit hardest, with consequences across society.
THIAROYE — Sitting on the corner of his bed, behind the curtains drawn to hide the blazing sun, Saada Ndiaye is waiting for the moment to come. That moment is his would-be departure to Spain, via a clandestine and uncertain path from this small town in Senegal, and onward through Morocco. Ndiaye, who introduces himself […]
First established in Colombia, kangaroo care for underweight babies relies on constant mother-child contact and avoids costs and complications of incubators that rarely arrive in Africa.
JOAL — On the beach here in Joal, a large fishing harbor south of Senegal’s capital of Dakar, a group of women watch as fishermen unload their catch from their motor boats. It wasn’t such a good day. But empty nets are not the only disappointment here. A Russian factory that will transform fresh fish […]
MBALLING — Some 20 people, all officially cured of leprosy, are sitting together at the functional rehabilitation center in Mballing, Senegal. But seeing them calls to mind the ancestral fears linked with this disease: club foots, mere leg or arm stumps, hands without fingers, misshapen faces, washed-out eyes that can no longer be opened. The […]
SAINT-LOUIS — In front of the houses in Pilote Barre, tires inexorably creep up on a shoreline that is gradually disappearing. The tide easily swallows these futile rubber fortifications along the Senegal coast. Only the large stones seem to be able to withstand the assaults of the ocean, but for how long? For several years, […]
SAINT-LOUIS — The African Virtual University is hardly a new project, as it was first founded in 1997 by the World Bank as an ambitious attempt to expand higher education across the continent. It is now run by some 15 African governments, but officials have looked for ways to expand it as Africa looks to […]