Senegal’s remote mangrove villages escape cannabis crackdown

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.

In northern Senegal, a sea barrier is being thrown up in the hopes of holding back coastal erosion. Also, we meet Richard Odjrado, an emerging star of the African tech world whose company is priming Benin's rise as an entrepreneurial hub. And adventure sports in South Africa are becoming more inclusive as the country's first paragliding wheelchair goes into use.

The financial freeze on Mali brought in by regional group ECOWAS has hit its economy hard. Key sectors like the cotton industry have been struggling to overcome the impact of the trade penalties. Also, as the excitement of the Africa Cup of Nations winds down, we head to two-time tournament hosts Gabon, where once-gleaming stadiums have fallen into disrepair. Finally, a Malawian musician finds runaway fame on TikTok at the age of 92.

Thousands of Senegalese soldiers fought for France against the Nazis in World War II. But on December 1, 1944, as many as 400 of them were murdered in cold blood: not by the Germans, but by the very French forces they fought alongside. The massacre was swept under the rug for decades, preventing victims and their relatives from any form of closure or recognition. Marie Thomas-Penette and François-Xavier Destors' new documentary "Thiaroye 44" is one of the first to explore this dark chapter of France's colonial past. The directors joined us for Perspective.

Liverpool forward Sadio Mane said he will listen to the Senegalese people while deciding his future at the Premier League club amid speculation that he could leave Anfield with just a year remaining on his current contract. Mane, who has been linked with a move to German champions Bayern Munich, earlier said that he would announce a decision following last weekend's Champions League final against Real Madrid, which Liverpool lost 1-0.

South Africa plans to head up a peace mission with African nations set on mediating the war in Ukraine. Also, African and European innovators meet in Marseille to talk sustainability and the importance of re-imagining Africa's cities of the future. Finally, we celebrate African films at this year's Cannes Film Festival. Movies from Senegal and Tunisia are in the running for the prestigious Palme d'Or award.