Senegal’s leaders face harsh reality check after promises of radical reform

Six months after coming to power, president and PM locked in stand-off with parliament

Within a week of being inaugurated in April as Senegal’s youngest president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye named his political mentor, Ousmane Sonko, as prime minister and announced his 25 cabinet appointments.

Faye had swept to power on a leftist, anti-establishment and pan-African agenda promising radical reform, and said in his victory speech that his administration would focus on national reconciliation, easing the cost of living crisis and fighting corruption.

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Support for democracy in Africa falls amid military coups and corruption

Africans still have stronger preference for democratic governance than many other parts of the world

Support for democracy is falling in Africa amid a string of military coups and dissatisfaction with corruption and mismanagement, according to a report by Afrobarometer. However, Africans still have a stronger preference for democratic governance than many parts of the world.

Two-thirds of people in 30 African countries prefer democracy, surveys conducted in 2021 or 2023 found, down seven percentage points from a decade earlier.

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Ecowas warns of ‘disintegration’ as juntas split from west African bloc

Breakaway union by military rulers of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger exposes growing fissures within the region

The Ecowas grouping of west African countries has warned the region faces “disintegration” after three military rulers cemented their own breakaway union over the weekend.

Parallel meetings of Ecowas, or the Economic Community of West African States, on Sunday in Abuja and the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) – comprising Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger – in Niger’s capital, Niamey, on Saturday exposed growing fissures within the unstable region, pitting neighbours against each other.

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Germany’s first black African-born MP to stand down after racist abuse

Karamba Diaby’s announcement he wants to spend time with family comes after bullet and arson attacks on his office

The first black African-born MP to enter the German parliament has announced he will not be standing in next year’s federal election, weeks after he revealed the hate mail, including racist slurs and death threats, he and his staff had received.

Karamba Diaby, 62, who entered the Bundestag in 2013 in a moment hailed as historic by equality campaigners, said he wanted to spend more time with his family and to make room for younger politicians.

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At least 50 people feared drowned after boat from Senegal sinks off Canary island

Nine people rescued from boat sailing perilous Atlantic route that reportedly left Senegal with 60 people onboard nine days ago

At least 50 people are feared to have drowned after a boat sailing the perilous Atlantic route from west Africa to Europe began to sink 60 miles south of the Canary island of El Hierro.

Nine people were rescued from the craft early on Monday after a passing bulk carrier alerted Spain’s Salvamento Marítimo rescue service, which dispatched a fast boat and a helicopter from its base in Tenerife.

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Bassirou Diomaye Faye sworn in as Senegal’s youngest president

Leftwinger one of a group of opposition politicians freed from prison 10 days before presidential ballot

Bassirou Diomaye Faye, a leftwing pan-Africanist, has been sworn in as Senegal’s youngest president, pledging systemic change, greater sovereignty and calm after years of deadly turmoil.

The 44-year-old, who has never held an elected office, swept to a first-round victory on a promise of radical reform just 10 days after being released from prison.

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‘We are finally free’: Senegal hails new anti-establishment president

Bassirou Diomaye Faye promises to overhaul democracy in west African country blighted by corruption

Just 10 days before being elected president of Senegal, Bassirou Diomaye Faye was in prison.

Years of political turmoil have left the west African state’s democracy teetering on the brink of collapse, with deadly uprisings and the jailing of opposition figurescommonplace.

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Senegal’s anti-establishment candidate almost certain to become president

Radical change candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye pulls off stunning election win after main rival Amadou Ba concedes defeat

Senegal’s anti-establishment candidate looks almost certain to become president after a stunning election victory that is likely to steer the west African country in a radical new direction.

A little over a week after his release from prison, Bassirou Diomaye Faye is almost certain to be declared the country’s next president after his main rival unexpectedly called him on Monday to concede defeat.

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Senegal heads to the polls overshadowed by deadly protests

Country’s reputation as one of Africa’s model democracies under threat after weeks of violence

Senegal heads to the polls on Sunday after weeks of chaos, violence and uncertainty prompted fears that democracy had been fatally undermined in one of west Africa’s most stable countries.

Analysts say the presidential election is the most wide open in Senegal since it secured independence from France more than 60 years ago.

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African leaders call for equity over minerals used for clean energy

‘Crucial’ UN resolution attempts to avoid repeat of injustices produced by Africa’s fossil fuel sector

In an attempt to avoid the “injustices and extractivism” of fossil fuel operations, African leaders are calling for better controls on the dash for the minerals and metals needed for a clean energy transition.

A resolution for structural change that will promote equitable benefit-sharing from extraction, supported by a group of mainly African countries including Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Chad, was presented at the UN environmental assembly in Nairobi on Wednesday and called for the sustainable use of transitional minerals.

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France should return much more looted African art, film-maker says

Mati Diop, the director of Dahomey, which charts the restitution of 26 objects to Benin, says the tiny number involved is ‘humiliating’

The first major return of looted treasures from Europe to Africa in the 21st century has left a lingering feeling of humiliation because of the lack of follow-up action, a French-Senegalese film-maker who accompanied a hoard of artefacts on their journey from Paris to their country of origin has said.

In her film Dahomey, which premiered at the Berlin film festival on Sunday, the director, Mati Diop, documents the 2021 journey of 26 treasures that the commander of French forces in Senegal looted from the royal palace of the kingdom of Dahomey, part of modern-day Benin, in 1890.

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Senegal police and protesters clash in first major unrest over vote delay

Student reportedly killed in the northern city of Saint-Louis while security forces and demonstrators clash in Dakar

Security forces and protesters have clashed in Senegal’s capital and other cities in the first widespread unrest over the delay to a presidential election that constitutes one of the country’s most significant political crises to date.

Riot police in Dakar fired teargas, stun grenades and what appeared to be rubber bullets at large crowds of protesters who set up roadblocks, burned tyres and threw stones.

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Senegal riot police fire teargas to break up protests over postponed election

Mobile internet access has also been restricted, as parliament begins debate on bill to extend Macky Sall’s presidency

Riot police fired teargas to break up crowds trying to gather outside Senegal’s national assembly on Monday to protest against the president’s abrupt postponement of elections over the weekend.

As protesters shouted slogans, parliament began debating a bill that would reschedule the 25 February vote for 25 August and extend Macky Sall’s mandate as president until his successor is installed.

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Senegal president postpones election hours before official campaign start

Macky Sall cites dispute between national assembly and the constitutional court over rejection of candidates as reason for delay

Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, has announced the indefinite postponement of a presidential election scheduled for 25 February a few hours before official campaigning was due to start, provoking anger from opposition figures and a ministerial resignation.

In an address to the nation on Saturday, Sall said he had postponed the vote that would have decided his successor because of a dispute between the national assembly and constitutional court over the rejection of candidates.

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Actor reporting on asylum seekers finds brother among arrivals in Canary Islands

Thimbo Samb, based in Madrid, was reunited with his older brother who had made boat journey from Senegal

A Madrid-based actor who had travelled to the Canary Islands to report on the arrival of a near-record number of asylum seekers was reunited with his brother after finding out that he was among the thousands who have made the treacherous trip from Senegal to Spain in recent weeks.

Thimbo Samb and his team had arrived in the archipelago hoping to tell the story of the more than 23,000 asylum seekers who have turned up on its shores so far this year. But the Senegal-born actor’s trip took a different turn after he learned that his older brother was among the many who had recently set off on the risky route.

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Boat carrying record 280 people from west Africa reaches Canaries

Wooden vessel is thought to have held largest number of arrivals to Spanish archipelago in one crossing

A wooden boat crammed with 280 people that arrived at the Canary island of El Hierro on Tuesday is thought to be the most crowded migrant vessel to have reached the Spanish archipelago after traversing the perilous Atlantic route from west Africa.

More than 500 people reached El Hierro on Tuesday alone, as smugglers took advantage of the calmer autumn weather to ferry people to the Canaries. Emergency services reported another boat arriving with 79 people, while 127 others were rescued from the sea.

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African leaders at odds over climate plans as crucial Nairobi summit opens

Oil-producing African nations argue they should be able to use fossil fuel resources for economic growth

African leaders and campaigners are at odds over the way forward for the continent as a critical climate summit begins in Nairobi.

Some countries, such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa, have been expanding their renewable energy access and leading transition efforts on the continent, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency.

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Cape Verde boat survivors say some jumped out to try to reach land

Some took parts of wooden seats for buoyancy after watching friends die on drifting vessel

Facing hunger, thirst and a rising number of deaths, some of the group of asylum seekers who were adrift for more than a month in the Atlantic resorted to breaking off chunks of the boat’s wooden seats in hopes of floating to land, a friend of three of the survivors has said.

More than 90 people are believed to have died before the rickety boat that had set off from Fass Boye, a seaside town in Senegal, was found off Cape Verde last week. Survivors said they left on 10 July aiming to reach Spain’s Canary Islands and spent weeks drifting at the mercy of powerful Atlantic trade winds.

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Cape Verde boat disaster: vessel drifted for month after alarm raised, says NGO

Walking Borders said it told authorities in four countries on 20 July about vessel with more than 100 asylum seekers onboard

A Spanish NGO alerted authorities from four countries on 20 July about a boat carrying an estimated 130 asylum seekers that was found earlier this week with just 38 survivors and the bodies of seven dead people on board.

Relatives of those onboard said the large fishing vessel had left Fass Boye, a seaside town in Senegal on 10 July, and was heading for Spain’s Canary Islands. The boat was spotted on Monday about 150 nautical miles (277km ) north of the Cape Verdean island of Sal.

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At least 63 people feared dead after boat found off Cape Verde

Fishing vessel with 100 asylum seekers was travelling from Senegal to Spain’s Canary Islands

More than 60 people are believed to have died after the boat they were travelling on from Senegal was found off Cape Verde, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday.

At least 63 asylum seekers are thought to have died, while the 38 survivors include four children between the ages of 12 and 16, an IOM spokesperson told AFP.

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