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Senegal says student's death in clashes with police a 'tragedy'
Senegal on Tuesday called the death of a medical student at a major Dakar university during clashes with police a "tragedy" and acknowledged acts of violence by security forces trying to quell protests.
University students have been rallying against the thorny issue of stipend arrears for several years in a country where economic difficulties weigh particularly heavy on the young.
Those protests came to a head on Monday on the campus of Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD), a prestigious west African university with a student body in the tens of thousands.
Videos posted to social media showed scenes of chaos, with security forces entering university grounds and firing tear gas into buildings while students retaliated by throwing stones.
"What happened yesterday is a tragedy," Interior Minister Mouhamadou Bamba Cisse told journalists at a press conference about the death of Abdoulaye Ba.
"There were acts of violence that we witnessed on both sides, and acts that we saw emanating from the defence and security forces. As an official, these are acts that I cannot condone", Cisse said, announcing an investigation.
A student association collective said in a statement earlier that Ba had "been brutally tortured to death by police officers", a claim that could not be immediately verified by AFP.
Authorities meanwhile have detained 105 students at the central police station in Dakar, according to another student group.
Cisse said his ministry had received "precise intelligence indicating that certain individuals were planning to attack university infrastructure" and added that some had begun attacking a food hall on Monday morning.
He accused some students of possessing tear gas grenades and Molotov cocktails.
Cisse said 48 law enforcement members were injured but did not give a tally for students.
- Student residences closed -
Earlier Tuesday, Senegalese authorities closed UCAD's student residences and dining halls "until further notice", leaving a number of students from other cities in the lurch. Classes, meanwhile, remain in session.
AFP journalists saw dozens of students gathered in front of the university's main gate, their luggage piled on the ground.
Many said they wanted to return home but lacked the means.
"I haven't eaten for days. I'm hungry and I have no money... How am I going to get home?" Modou Fall, a third-year liberal arts student from Tambacounda in eastern Senegal, told AFP.
The student collective that said Ba had been tortured accused law enforcement of entering student residences, "shooting at students" and "breaking down the doors of the student buildings while beating students".
The group said it held Senegal's president, prime minister and other government officials responsible, and called for a university shutdown "until further notice", asking students to remain at home until demands are met.
- Youth anger -
Students at UCAD accuse the government of aiming to permanently halt the payment of scholarship arrears.
"The government must get a grip and take action to ensure this situation doesn't happen again. Because we're fed up", Oumar Ba, a 26-year-old mathematics student, told AFP.
Several human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, expressed deep concern over Senegalese campus violence in recent months.
They jointly called for "an independent and impartial investigation" and the release of detained students.
For several years now, Senegal's university academic calendar has been disrupted due to student and faculty strikes, causing overlaps between different academic years.
As a result, students can go months without receiving their stipends, which range from 20,000 to 60,000 CFA francs (between $36 and $109) per month.
Approximately 75 percent of the population in Senegal is under the age of 35.
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye's election in 2024 fanned hopes of change among the country's many disadvantaged young people.
He and his prime minister Ousmane Sonko promised a break with the past that was widely popular with the young.
"What happened is deplorable. We fought for this regime and this is how they repay us", said Fall, the student from Tambacounda.
Clashes between law enforcement officers and students also occurred at the University of Bambey in central Senegal on Tuesday.
M.Ferraro--MJ
