The Enfant Jésus-de-Prague quasi-parish of Tivaouane Peulh is the subject of a land conflict between the Catholic faithful and a developer who claims part of the site, even though the land was acquired in 1999 by the Archdiocese of Dakar and has been the subject of deliberation by the rural community of Sangalkam since 2001.
Wearing red armbands and scarves, hundreds of people took over the site this Sunday after mass to show their anger, defend their heritage and express their wish for a definitive court decision on who owns the land. “A first conflict pitted us against the Maguette NIASSE family since 2017 and until now this problem has not yet been resolved. Attempts at mediation undertaken by the sub-prefect of Sangalkam at the time did not succeed, which fact that the case is still pending before the courts”, recalled Maurice Diouf, continuing that a second conflict will also arise in this same site, “15 years later with real estate developers such as Messrs Modou Makhfousse SYLLA and Mamadou NDIAYE accompanied by surveyors who come regularly even during our Sunday services, squat in the area, thus disturbing the peace and quiet of our pastors,” he denounces.
Concerned about preserving social peace and respectful of the institutions of our country, continues the spokesperson of the day, “we were careful not to respond blow for blow. We were able to control the young people on the use of force against attacks from these predators so that the worst does not happen, but we now see that enough is enough”, he again called to the attention of the population, taking advantage of this same momentum, to thank the State of Senegal for the resumption of work on the Church of APIX and also drawing its attention to the land contiguous to the Church and intended to house the presbytery (priests’ house) claimed by a real estate developer named El Hadji AMAR in order to to build a shopping center there, which constitutes a provocation for them.
The faithful complainants also took the opportunity to request land for use as places of worship for the Saints Innocents sector of Niaga, which has a large concentration of Christians where services are held in a house lent by a faithful. “Representations have been made to local authorities for more than 5 years and have remained without follow-up, until then only promises,” concluded Maurice Diouf and his comrades.
