Senegal: Protest of crony oil contracts turns violent

By Alpha Kamara

DAKAR, Senegal (AA)- Senegalese police Saturday defended their use of batons and teargas at a protest Friday, saying they had to “avoid chaos” when demonstrators strayed from the approved route.

With some 500 people protesting crony oil contracts, according to the opposition, two protesters and a cameraman were injured in a melee with police.

"The police were very clear on where the opposition should carry out their protest. But they changed their route,” Ndiarra Sene, the police commissioner of Dakar, told reporters.

"As we approached the time of the event, they [protesters] started setting barricades in roundabouts and also headed towards the offices of the Regional Department of Public Safety, the head of the Dakar Municipality, and others,” he added.

“We had to act to avoid chaos, and had to use the right means to curtail them.”

Journalists were caught in the tumult as dozens of teargas canisters were exploded. A cameraman from Senenews TV, a local TV station, was injured. Two opposition party supporters were wounded after a stone-throwing battle with the police and were treated by the Red Cross.

Ibrahim Samakeh of the opposition PDS Party of former President Abdoulaye Wade said the protest was called by a coalition of opposition parties to demand “true democracy” and transparency in the management of the country’s newly found oil and gas deposits.

“We protested against the president and his brother Aliou Sall, who has been running the oil and gas deposits found in the country as a family business. The way the country is going it looks like we are in a dictatorial regime where the voices of the opposition are not respected anymore,” Samakeh told Anadolu Agency.

Under fire from the opposition, Aliou Sall, the brother of President Macky Sall, has also announced his resignation as a director of Timis, an oil company with state contracts.

Timis Corp., headed by Romanian-Australian businessman Frank Timis, has several projects in Africa, including Mauritania and Senegal.

Aliou Sall and Timis Corp. filed a lawsuit last week against 11 people, including former Prime Minister Abdoul Mbaye, and journalists for defamation, libel, and conspiracy.