Dakar (AFP)

The disappearance of Pape Diouf, former president of Olympique de Marseille, puts a known and unanimously respected face on the epidemic of coronavirus in Senegal where the dangerousness of the disease remains variously taken into account.

The daily update from the Senegalese Ministry of Health broadcast live on Wednesday ceased to be the austere statement, in French and Wolof, of the number of tests, cases of infected people, cured patients.

The sinister balance sheet now has one more entry: that of the dead, and the first death appointed by the ministry is that of a personality familiar to a large number of Senegalese for whom the reality of the coronavirus materialized until then by covers - nighttime fire, the closing of schools or the impossibility of praying at the mosque or the church.

Pape Diouf, former president of one of the most popular football clubs in France (and Senegal), former agent of great football practitioners, former journalist, died Tuesday at 68 years old in a hospital in Dakar.

Adama Ndione, vice-president of the Supporters of Olympique de Marseille in Senegal, a fan club which claims a few hundred inserted members, "shed a lot of tears": "He was a Senegalese, a perfect example of success in everything what he was doing, an example for us, "he says.

In the country which was his with France, and where he returned constantly for personal and professional reasons, tributes poured in: from President Macky Sall, from singer Youssou Ndour for whom he was a "formidable and multidimensional man", past or present players, fellow journalists ...

- Last call -

The jersey struck with the "Droit au but" goal is a common sight in this crazy football country. Pape Diouf was popular there for bringing OM to the forefront of the sports scene, for his relationships with the champions, but also for his personal journey, his engaging personality, and his sense of the word appreciated in Senegal.

Like others, Bacary Cisse, editor of the sports newspaper Record, presents him as his "godfather", the one who launched him in the career. He gave his name to his son, and is upset.

Thursday, Pope Diouf wrote to him that he had bad angina but thought of him. His mentor called him on Friday to tell him that he was in solitary confinement and had been diagnosed positive.

"Saturday morning, we talked for the last time. He said to me: + Bacary, listen, Petit, illness, we will all recover +".

Bacary Cisse is himself reached and hospitalized. Senegal has declared 190 cases of contamination, including 45 cured and, now, one dead. The progression of the disease and the growing share taken by "community" rather than "imported" transmissions, combined with the state of African health systems, are causing concern.

- Posthumous awareness -

Senegal has taken measures to contain the evil and is preparing to celebrate Saturday 60 years of independence without the splendor to which such an anniversary could have given rise.

The debate is open on the need for provisions even firmer than the state of emergency and the curfew, until confinement. But here, as elsewhere in Africa, how will the considerable part of the population that lives day by day in the informal economy manage to live in confinement?

Many people, like the mayor of the popular district of the Medina in Dakar, deplore the disregard for anti-coronavirus rules by the Senegalese, whether they act out of necessity or ignorance of the danger.

"The death of Pope raises awareness by its strong resonance," says a psychologist quoted in the newspaper l'Observateur, Serigne Mor Mbaye, "we saw him all powerful, at an inaccessible level (...) The size of the character makes that we are scared"

Until then, "people didn't want to believe it" (to the disease), says Adama Ndione, of the fan club, now they "will start to be afraid". He still does not know how, with the ban on rallies, Senegalese fans will honor the memory of the deceased.

© 2020 AFP