We last wrote about the political situation on our blog in July 2023 after Senegal had experienced a week of intense riots across the country. Things have been relatively quiet since then, until just this past week.
On Saturday, President Macky Sall announced an indefinite postponement to the election which was supposed to take place on February 25th. I (Adam) was taking part in a softball tournament that day at a field owned by the U.S. Embassy. When Sall made his announcement (around 3pm), the Embassy immediately cancelled the tournament for the day for fear of protests breaking out across the city. While Saturday remained relatively quiet, protests did materialize Sunday night into Monday morning. These protests (even peaceful ones) were met with strong force from the police who quickly used tear gas to break up any demonstrations.
On Monday morning, Senegal’s Parliament met to vote on the decision to delay the presidential election. At around 10pm and after a full day of debating, police were called in to physically remove members of the Parliament who opposed the bill and were trying to prevent the vote from taking place. After their removal, the bill passed and the elections were postponed until December 15th. This effectively extends President Sall’s presidency, which was slated to end on April 2nd since he has already reached the two term limit, for another six months.
Many are calling this move a “constitutional coup” and are saying that Senegal’s democracy has died with this delay of the presidential election. If you’d like to know more, you can click on the picture below to read a New York Times article which does a good job summarizing what has happened recently.
We ask that you join us in prayer for the following things:
- That democracy and a fair election process would be preserved.
- For peace here in Dakar and across the country.
- That protests would be peaceful and would not lead to the destruction of property and the loss of life like was seen last summer.
- That God would use this political situation to draw Senegalese people to Jesus, the Prince of Peace, who alone provides true and lasting peace.