In the spotlight: expensive life and poverty in Senegal
Audio 00:04
A woman prepares a dish of rice and fish in a street restaurant in Dakar (illustrative image).
AFP - GEORGES GOBET
By: Frédéric Couteau Follow
4 min
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“
The march against the dear life killed in the bud
, exclaims the daily
Sud
.
The march planned by activists and other members of civil society, politicians and citizen movements the day before yesterday Sunday [September 12], in Guédiawaye, against the high cost of living, was interrupted by the police.
The police, who squared the area very early, carried out the violent arrest of the organizers.
The activist Guy Marius Sagna and some of his comrades from the Frapp / France Dégage movement and citizen movements and organizations were arrested.
"
A counterproductive ban?
"
Absurd
," launches
Investigation
.
Power phobias have contaminated prefectural reason and stifled public intelligence.
It would have been easier to let this demonstration run and to channel it […].
It would have been more useful for public appeasement, even if it may seem paradoxical, to let these men and women walk to denounce the high cost of living, moreover detrimental to power itself.
It would have been more thoughtful to ally themselves with these protests by their authorization, to denounce the excesses of certain agrifood complexes, certain real estate lobbies and a few citizens eager for profit and at the same time undertake bold actions to neutralize the ignoble beast of the unscrupulous profit.
"
Is Macky Sall afraid?
The Country
in Burkina Faso adds: “
We wonder what Macky Sall is afraid of.
Instead of providing answers to the populations, some of which are pulling the devil by the tail, he has preferred to repress them.
Would Macky Sall want to hide the sun with his finger
?
We know,
points out the Ouagalais daily,
the basket of the housewife is
shrinking like hell
in Senegal, due to the soaring prices of basic foodstuffs.
And failing to take appropriate measures to counter this situation, Macky's power should have established a dialogue with civil society.
It is obvious that repression cannot be a response to the high cost of living.
"
Poverty is getting worse ...
This march against the high cost of living has therefore been nipped in the bud while at the same time a study by the National Agency for Statistics and Demography on poverty in the country appears. “
While the government is proud of an 'emerging Senegal'
, notes
WalfQuotidien
,
this study shows that the number of poor people has increased in Senegal (6 million in 2018, against just over 5 million in 2011). Worse, 50.9% of Senegalese consider themselves poor
. " Furthermore, "
this study undermines the government's comments about agricultural production.
Indeed, its results show that "food insecurity is still a reality" in Senegal.
It mainly affects rural areas in the regions of Kolda, Kédougou, Sédhiou, Tambacounda and Matam.
"And again, notes
Survey
, this study was carried out in 2018 and 2019, that is to say before the arrival of Covid-19,"
which severely affected the economy and Senegalese households.
The situation must therefore have worsened.
Alpha Condé: "Rather be killed than sign my resignation"
Also on the front page, these revelations from
Jeune Afrique
on the conditions of detention and the state of mind of Alpha Condé.
"
The former Guinean president is being held in the special forces office installed in a wing of the People's Palace, at the entrance to Kaloum, and more precisely in the suite where Lieutenant-Colonel Mamady Doumbouya previously lived. It is also in this same room (and not in Sékhoutouréya palace) that the now famous photo of Alpha Condé, sitting on a sofa and surrounded by soldiers, was taken shortly after his arrest. […] Alpha Condé has a bedroom, a living room and a bathroom, but has no access to his telephones or to the radio. The television, which he was able to watch for a while, was taken away from him because, according to his guards, "he gets angry every time he sees Lieutenant-Colonel Doumbouya on the screen and it affects his state of health" .
"
Moreover, still according to
Jeune Afrique
, Alpha Condé would refuse any resignation: "
Rather be killed than signed
", he would have said.
Finally, reports the Pan-African site, the former president “
still sometimes struggles to realize that he is no longer at the head of the country.
He demands that his work computer be returned to him, in which are stored "a hundred documents" that he had to sign to conclude agreements between Guinea, the IMF and the World Bank.
He also recalls that he was expected at the UN General Assembly on September 23 to speak on behalf of Guinea and he is worried about who will go in his place.
"
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