Protests erupt in Senegalese capital over virus curfew



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Young people protesting a coronavirus curfew clashed overnight with security forces in the Senegalese capital, burning tires and erecting barricades as police fired tear gas in Dakar’s Ngor district , reported an AFP photographer.

Incidents were also reported in other parts of the capital on Wednesday night.

President Macky Sall called for a state of emergency on Wednesday by imposing a 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew in Dakar and another region of the West African country.

Dakar and the Thiès region account for nearly 90 percent of Covid-19 infections, according to health authorities.

Sall’s cabinet justified the curfew with a spike in deaths and new infections, including severe cases.

The pandemic had abated in Senegal before a second wave struck.

As elsewhere in Africa, the workforce in Senegal is far from the levels reached in the West, with more than 20,000 cases and 433 deaths.

But the epidemic has put a strain on the poor country’s health system.

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