Senegal’s remote mangrove villages escape cannabis crackdown

Youths take to the streets and burn tyres in Dakar during a night of protests against the curfew reinstated to limit the spread of Covid-19. 'That's when I have to go to work. I am a father and I am prevented from working,' says a taxi driver.

Senegalese soldiers have taken control of several hectares of cannabis fields after a successful mission to capture rebel bases in the southern Casamance region. Troops deployed in the region supported by forces from neighbouring Guinea-Bissau, as fighting flared up in a long-dormant independence conflict.

Senegal's President Macky Sall calls for calm, after days of deadly clashes between opposition supporters and security forces in the usually tranquil West African state.

In a few weeks, the second season of the immensely popular reality TV show “Ferme Factory” (Farm Factory) will air across Senegal. But in contrast to the glitter and glamour usually associated with such shows, Ferme Factory is far from that: For four months, 20 contestants compete to get their hands as dirty as possible, facing various farming challenges, including both sowing and plowing. The winner is awarded with his or her very own farm, along with three years of agricultural training.

Names like Adidas and Burberry face a dilemma: either respect a boycott on cotton from China's Xinjiang region — reportedly produced using forced Uyghur labor — or lose access to the world's biggest consumer market.

The Senegalese Muslim community start the month of Ramadan in solidarity and sharing. At the Massalikul Jinaan mosque in Dakar, one of the largest in West Africa, hundreds of meals consisting of bread, dates and rice, are distributed at dusk by "Baye Fall", a branch of the Mouride brotherhood whose members are distinguished by their "dreadlocks" hairstyles, their colourful accoutrements and their devotion.

The coronavirus pandemic shut down Senegalese wrestling for a year. Now fighting is allowed again – a relief to wrestlers and spectators in the West African country where the sport enjoys widespread popularity.

Senegalese living in some of Senegal's most arid regions are building circular, drought-resistant gardens known as Tolou Keurs with hopes of improving food security and, as part of Africa's Great Green Wall project, impeding the Sahara desert's steady advance.

Senegal's ongoing record COVID-19 surge has left the capital without spare beds for the severest cases as hundreds now flock to health centres in the hope of getting vaccinated. Like many African countries facing a third wave of infections, Senegal is more vulnerable due to a low vaccination rate compared to richer nations. It has administered fewer than 1 million doses so far to a population of around 16 million people, according to government data.

Senegalese children dream of being famous football players

One year after singer Akon laid the first stone of the $6 billion futuristic city he plans to build in his native Senegal, the site remains grassland. Construction of "Akon City," a project due to feature ultramodern twisting skyscrapers, was already meant to have begun near the Atlantic Ocean village of Mbodiene. But building work is yet to start, prompting residents who were hoping for jobs to wonder about its future.