Opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye is set to become Senegal’s next president after provisional results showed the 44-year-old was headed for a huge first-round victory.

On Monday, Amadou Ba, the Prime Minister and candidate of the ruling coalition, conceded defeat and congratulated Faye, a former tax inspector.

Before his concession message, Ba’s supporters had hoped that their candidate would mount some sort of comeback to at least force a runoff vote.

The election commission has until midnight on Friday to announce the results of Sunday’s presidential election.

Faye has become the first youngest President in Africa and he has vowed to govern the country with humility.

Senegal main opposition leader Ousmane Sonko has slipped into a coma, his lawyers said on Thursday 26, 2023.

Radio France International reports that Sonko has been under arrest since July, and imprisoned in Darka’s hospital.

His health first started deteriorating when he started a hunger strike in August to protest against what he calls mid-October to support the opponents to president Macky Sall, and to call for freedom for political prisoners ahead of next year’s elections.

His state of health is now “alarming” and “worsening” one of Sonko lawyers, Cire Cledor Ly, said. He entered a deep coma on Monday.

Senegalese opposition candidates say they are being harassed as they collect political sponsorship, a crucial step in the run-up to February 2024 polls.

Source: France news

Two opposition Senegalese MPs have been arrested for the alleged assault of their pregnant colleague in parliament earlier this month.

It follows the chaos that erupted during a budget debate in parliament, in scenes that were televised. The video of the fight was shared widely on social media.

Massata Samb is said to have slapped the female MP, Amy Ndiaye Gniby, after she scoffed at him during the debate.

She threw a chair at him before another MP, Mamadou Niang, kicked her in the stomach after she was pushed to the ground.

Both Mr Samb and Mr Niang have been detained and are charged with voluntarily causing hurt, their lawyer told the Reuters news agency, adding that the detention violated their parliamentary immunity.

They are expected appear in court on Monday.

Source; BBC

A young boy was allegedly caught trying to cut the throat of a 3-year-old girl.

The incident happened in the city of Touba, Senegal, on Friday, February 4.

The teenager was seen walking hastily with the girl towards an abandoned building at about 5pm.

The manager of an auto garage noticed the teenager with the girl and became suspicious so he began monitoring him as he took the girl into a deserted building located a few meters from the garage.

A short while later, the manager of the garage alerted two of his apprentices to the suspicious movement of the teenager.

The apprentices quietly followed the teenager to his hideout where they were shocked to find him holding a knife over the little girl.

The apprentices took the suspect to the police station where he was questioned.

According to the revelations of the Touba Brigade, the suspect is a 15-year-old apprentice driver.

The little girl, identified by her initials, KS, to protect her identity, was rescued and has now been reunited with her parents KY and DM, whose names have also been abbreviated to hide their identities.

The United Nations’ cultural agency Unesco on Wednesday added Senegal’s national dish, a rice-and-fish platter called “thiebou dieune”, to its cultural heritage list.

Senegal’s culture ministry applied to include the dish, which is widely consumed in the West African country, on the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list in October.

“Thiebou dieune” means “rice with fish” in Senegal’s dominant Wolof language. It is often prepared with vegetables such as cassava or tomato and served at lunch.

The northern Senegalese city of Saint-Louis is believed be the birthplace of the dish.

The city, whose old center is itself a Unesco World Heritage site, borders the Atlantic Ocean and hosts a thriving fishing community.

“The recipe and techniques are traditionally passed down from mother to daughter,” Unesco stated, adding that the dish is traditionally eaten with hands.

Senegalese serial jailbreaker Baye Modou Fall, who escaped on Saturday from a prison in the capital Dakar, has been rearrested.

It was his 12th jailbreak from Senegalese prisons, local media report.

He was captured in Moussala in the east of the country near the Malian border, a spokesman for Senegal’s gendarmerie told the AFP news agency.

The 32-year-old, known as the “Escape Ace”, told local TV on Monday that he had escaped because the legal process was taking too long and he had been denied bail.

He also described how he had escaped from the prison by breaking a ventilation grill in a cell and escaping over a wall in the prison using a rope.

The authorities are investigating whether he had any accomplices.

US R&B singer Akon, who has been talking since 2018 about building a new city in Senegal, said at a press conference on Monday that construction work will start next year.

He said that the identities of the investors cannot be revealed but that a third of the $6bn (£5bn) funding had been secured.

The architect behind the city, Hussein Bakri, said the city’s population would eventually reach 300,000.

Akon, whose real name is Alioune Badara Thiam, marketed the city directly to African Americans.

He explained he had “ran into a lot of African-Americans that didn’t really understand their culture… So I wanted to build a city or a project like this that will give them the motivation to know that there is a home back home,” AFP news agency quotes the singer, who was born in the US to Senegalese parents, as saying.

“As you come in from America, or Europe or anywhere in the diaspora, and you feel like you want to visit Africa, we want Senegal to be your first stop,” he said.

A Ugandan businessman was on Monday shot dead by Rwanda security forces in Rwerere parish, Burera district, about 5km from the Uganda-Rwanda border.

Warren Musekura, a resident of Kagogo village Bigagga parish Butanda sub county Kabale district, was reportedly killed while smuggling match boxes into Rwanda.

The brother, Sidini Muhereza, confirmed the news, saying that fellow traders close to the border had informed him about the incident.

However, he demanded that the deceased’s body is returned to Uganda for burial.

“We appeal to the Rwandan government officials to handover the body of our deceased relative for a decent burial. The deceased has a wife and 5 children,” Muhereza said on Wednesday, June 3, 2020.

The Kabale District chairman, Mr Patrick Besigye Keihwa, said

Ugandan security personnel in the border districts of Kabale in Uganda and Burera in Rwanda were coordinating the process of handing over the body of the deceased to the relatives.

Government of Uganda in November 2019 wrote a note verbale to Rwanda after Rwandan soldiers shot and killed two Ugandan traders over allegations of smuggling.

Job Ebyarishaga and Bosco Tuhirwe were killed at Tabagwe village in Nyagatare District in Rwanda on allegations of smuggling tobacco into the neighbouring East African country.

“The Government of Uganda protests in the strongest terms the murder of its nationals by Rwandan security personnel for allegedly being involved in smuggling of goods across the common border.

The alleged crime cannot justify the high handed and criminal act by the Rwandan security personnel, against unarmed civilians residing along the common border.

Furthermore, the Ministry notes that these murders are inimical to the ongoing efforts to improve relations between the two countries.

The Ministry demands that a joint investigation in the murders be conducted and the perpetrators held accountable,” a statement issued by Mr Ofwono reads in part.

The Senegalese city of Diamniadio is a hotbed of diplomatic activity as African leaders join citizens for the investiture of President Macky Sall.

Sall emerged winner of elections held on February 24. Beating four other aspirants with 58% of votes cast. The opponents rejected the results but said they were not going to contest it.

In keeping with the electoral laws, the Constitutional Court on the sixth of March affirmed his poll victory. Sall had 2,555,426 representing 58.26%, Idrissa Seck got 899,556 representing 20.51%.

Ousmane Sonko polled 687,523 or 15.67%, Madické Niang, 65,021 or 1.48% and El Hadji Sall also had 178,613, representing 4.07%, the court said.

The 58-year-old will be serving his final mandate in line with the two-term limit imposed by the constitution. Senegal is one of Africa’s most stable democracies. It has not experienced military intervention since independence in 1960.

Source : African News

President Macky Sall has won Sunday’s presidential election in Senegal, the country’s prime minister said.

Mahammed Dionne, citing a provincial tally, said Sall garnered at least 57% of the votes cast in Sunday’s poll.

“We must congratulate President Macky Sall for his first round election victory,” Dionne said early on Monday at a news conference in Dakar, the capital.

“Our gathered results show that our candidate has largely won the election in the thirteen out of fourteen regions in the country. We can expect a minimum of 57%. From tomorrow, our candidate restarts his work putting this country on the path toward to development,” Dionne added.

More than 6.5 million people registered to take part in the vote.

The electoral commission has not made any announcement. Official results are expected no later than Friday.

President Sall is seeking a second and final term in office.

A candidate must win more than 50% of the votes to avoid a runoff.

If no candidate has won the required votes, the two candidates with the most votes go to a second round to be held on March 24.

Meanwhile, opposition candidates said there was no winner in Sunday’s poll.

The singer Akon was born in the United States, but spent his early years in Dakar, Senegal (Africa).

In his remarks akon compared Africa and china saying that China was like Africa 25 years ago hence it is possible for Africans to start from the Scratch to something big.

He also compared Africa from Middle East countries and Dubai saying that Africa can achieve like those countries.

“Africa is the only place in the world where black people can go and build several companies within 5 years” Akon said.

Currently Akon is investing in his country Senegal  where he will build a city like the fictional land of Wakanda in Marvel’s Black Panther, Akon promises says his city will be a “futuristic environment”.

Akon has been “gifted” 2,000 acres of land by the President of Senegal to build the city which is also named after himself.

The Senegal-raised singer’s company is also said to have structured some $400 million worth of solar deals to date, including the massively successful launch of the Akon Lighting Africa initiative in February 2014, in which he has 200,000 small solar projects and provides lighting in 14 African countries.

Akon encourage all Africans who are abroad to come back in Africa and invest in Africa. he added by saying that Africans should take there talents to Africa such as entertainment, Education and other big or Small scale business to Africa.