Several hurt in student protests

Several days of student unrest across Senegal culminated with clashes in the capital as university students from the southern Casamance region protested alleged police violence against fellow students from their hometown. The university students, demonstrating at Cheikh Anta Diop University on Thursday, declared, “Solidarity with [our] younger brothers and sisters mistreated by security forces.” At least 11 high school students were injured on Wednesday - three seriously - in the Casamance capital, Ziguinchor, when police and gendarmes clashed with thousands of pupils striking over school equipment. Local newspapers - describing a day of “terror” and a scene reminiscent of “the Palestinian territories” - reported smashed car windows, damaged storefronts and streets full of burning tires. The students of Lycee Djignabo in Ziguinchor had been on strike since Monday, protesting the sale by customs officers of computer equipment destined for their school. Police and gendarmes used tear gas to disperse the student mob. Some witnesses and victims’ families charged that police fired live bullets, but the Senegalese Interior Ministry denied the charge on Friday, saying authorities used only tear gas. Three of those injured had to undergo operations at a Ziguinchor hospital, according to a hospital official, who said that one of the wounded had his legs burned by a Molotov cocktail. At least one police officer was also hurt in the confrontation. On Thursday in the eastern town of Tambacounda, a four-year-old boy was accidentally killed during student demonstrations when a billboard fell on him. High school students went on strike in Tambacounda over school grants, equipment and other conditions.