© Reuters. A Senegalese demonstrator stands watch throughout clashes with riot police as they protest towards the postponement of the Feb. 25 presidential election, in Dakar, Senegal February 9, 2024. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra
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DAKAR (Reuters) – A scholar was killed within the Senegalese metropolis of Saint-Louis amid Friday’s violent protests towards the postponement of the presidential election, the inside ministry stated on Saturday.
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 may result in protracted instability.
In an announcement, the ministry stated it had been knowledgeable of the demise 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 take care of order on the college campus the place the demise occurred,” it stated.
It was not instantly clear if protests would proceed on Saturday. Additional violent stand-offs with safety forces will add to fears of democratic retreat.
Lower than three weeks earlier than the Feb. 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, who has reached his constitutional restrict of two phrases, stated he delayed the vote on account of disputes that he stated threatened the credibility of the electoral course of, however a number of the opposition have denounced the transfer as an “institutional coup.”