THE STORY – OF CHARYBDE’S SCYLLA
It took 72 hours for an authority – it is true that it is the President of the Republic himself! – to finally deign to go to Mbour where the capsizing of a pirogue on board which had taken place some 200 people caused about thirty deaths. At least that is the number of bodies recovered, the missing numbering in the dozens. And yet, the capital of the Petite-Côte is located only about eighty kilometers from Dakar. This indifference, even this lack of empathy of the government is all the more scandalous and incomprehensible since the region of Thiès, of which Mbour is one of the three departments, is the one with the most ministers in the government. And the President of the Republic himself, moreover, comes from this same department and completed his secondary studies at the Demba Diop high school in his capital! But here it is, while emotion was taking hold of the whole of Senegal, while the victims’ families were mourning their loved ones and mourning, while in the press and on social networks, the only thing that was being talked about was this tragedy, neither the Prime Minister nor the Minister of Youth – all the dead taught this youth class -, much less the Minister of Fisheries deigned to go to Mbour. It took journalists denouncing this indifference for the President of the Republic – busy touring the mess halls, sorry, religious families – to finally deign to make a detour there on his way back from a courtesy visit to yet another religious home! In fact, since the new government came to power, one has the impression that it is only for religious families. In five months, the President has visited Touba three times and is preparing to make his second visit to Tivaouane. As for the stays in the capital of Oscar Sierra’s Mouridism, we no longer count them, the most recent one being this week. Worse, as if all the cities of this country were not of equal dignity and did not deserve the attention of the State, the latter only takes care of the so-called religious cities. Moreover, the modernization program of the religious cities of the Chief is being brought up to date and a director of Religious Affairs will even be appointed. The needs of the said cities are orders for President Diomaye and his PM. Meanwhile, the Senegalese who had defied the instructions of the caliphs of the said families to vote for the “Project” are left stranded and their concerns forgotten. Strange secular country where the sacrosanct weekly Council of Ministers was “skipped” for a week because the Prime Minister was going to Touba! And this week, it was brought forward by one day because of a presidential visit…to religious families. In short, in this area of State/religious family relations, the rupture is not only not there, but it is even worse than under the Chief’s regime!
KACCOOR BI – LE TEMOIN
TRANSACTION
Ousmane Sonko had announced it for this week and the Senegalese people are waiting. The start of the accountability process to make the embezzlers of the former regime pay their dues is imminent. The formidable magistrates of the Financial Judicial Pool will go into action and soon the first summonses – or even the arrest warrants – will be issued. To avoid inevitable imprisonment, dignitaries of the former regime have already begun to compromise. Among them, a former minister from the capital (we do not want to give too many details!) and cited in the heist of the century has already paid up by “reimbursing” a very large sum of money from his thefts. We prefer to stop there for the moment.
MOROCCO MAME MBAYE NIANG GEOLOCATED AT MACKY
After having “sold off” power and negotiated his “exile”, the former President of the Republic Macky Sall lives like a pasha in his residence in Marrakech (Morocco). A bastille that has become a hotbed where all the “apéristes” plots are prepared to weaken the power of Diomaye-Sonko! At least, that is what the supporters of the new authorities maintain. In any case, “Le Témoin” daily learned that the former Minister of Tourism and Leisure, Mame Mbaye Niang, was seen at Macky Sall’s in Marrakech. It was last week, our Cherifian geolocation system persists and signs. Mame Mbaye Niang was a central element in the political neutralization of the opponent Ousmane Sonko and it was her complaint for “defamation” against the leader of Pastef that had been used by magistrates under the orders of the former regime to disqualify Oscar Sierra’s presidential candidacy. Curiously, it was just at the time when the Prodac report (Community Agricultural Domains Programme, from whose management he was accused of having drawn billions) was being transmitted to the courts that Mame Mbaye Niang, whose mother is Moroccan, reappeared in the Cherifian kingdom!
DR BABACAR NIANG “SUMA”: A DOCTOR OF THE PEOPLE DEMANDED AT THE ASSEMBLY
Today, the Senegalese people will probably take out the rosaries so that this poor 14th legislature that is ending is buried by a decree of dissolution. And that the next 15th legislature has as deputies worthy elected officials of the caliber of Dr. Babacar Niang, chief physician and owner of the clinic “Suma-Assistance”. Custodied, persecuted and harassed by the former regime of President Macky Sall, Dr. Babacar Niang nicknamed “doctor of the people” has never bent or failed in his civic mission. To do this, he had transformed himself into a whistleblower to denounce the authoritarian and dictatorial excesses of President Macky Sall and report facts seriously undermining the general interest. And above all, the persecution and police hunt against the sick and injured of Pastef, even in his clinic located in Sacré-Cœur/Keur Gorgui. Both under the Abdoulaye Wade regime and under the Macky Sall era, Dr. Niang has always proven that he remains and remains the people’s doctor by providing free assistance to citizens injured during mass demonstrations. With a people’s doctor elected to the National Assembly, the slogan “Health for All” can become a reality.
DRAMA OF MBOUR AMADOU BA AND IDRISSA SECK HIGHLY UNWORTHY
Reactions are pouring in from the political class following the tragic sinking of a migrant canoe in Mbour, with provisional figures of 38 dead. Prime Ministers Amadou Ba and Idrissa Seck were deeply outraged by this latest tragedy of illegal immigration. “I am particularly saddened by the sinking of the boat near Mbour and the tragic circumstances of the traffic accident in Ndangalma,” Amadou Ba said in a note published on social media. Continuing, the former Prime Minister “encourages the elements of the national navy and all those involved in the rescue.” “I pray that the missing are found alive. I wish a speedy recovery to the survivors and the injured and offer my sincere condolences to the families of the deceased as well as to the entire nation,” he concluded. Idrissa Seck and the Rewmi Party are asking the government to take all the necessary cyclical and structural measures to stem such disasters. “Senegal has just experienced yet another tragedy linked to irregular emigration, with the sinking of a pirogue in Mbour that left dozens of victims. This tragedy is the latest in a long series of road accidents and sinkings of makeshift boats trying to reach Europe,” recalls former Prime Minister Idrissa Seck. The REEWMI Party is asking “the government to take all the necessary cyclical and structural measures to stem such disasters, to provide families with all the assistance they need in these difficult times and to identify all responsibilities,” the statement concludes.
CHEIKH OUMAR DIAGNE AFFAIR THE MOURIDES OF DAKAR MAINTAIN THEIR MARKET ON FRIDAY
Within the Mouride community of Dakar, there is no peace against Cheikh Oumar Diagne. Banned from marching last Friday, the Mourides of Dakar have decided to hold a popular march this Friday, September 13, after the collective prayer at the Massalikoul Djinane mosque. Serigne Sidy Mbacké ibn Serigne Modou Mactar and Serigne Abdou Bara Dolly Mbacké, who are leading the initiative, according to them, have announced that they have filed a request for authorization with the competent authorities. Moreover, the two religious leaders report that they were heard this Wednesday at the Grand-Dakar police station on this march initiated to denounce the derogatory remarks made by the director of general resources of the Presidency, Cheikh Oumar Diagne. On Monday, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, accompanied by a small delegation, visited the Caliph of the Mourides, Serigne Mountakha Bassirou Mbacké, to discuss this affair which has sparked collective indignation. The initiators of the demonstration invited all the faithful to gather on Friday to peacefully express their discontent over the attacks against the brotherhood.
WATER AND SANITATION TIVAOUANE REASSURED BY THE STATE
“The President of the Republic will have the pleasure, no doubt, during his visit to Tivaouane, to inform or tell the Caliph General Serigne Babacar Sy Mansour, that the work he had requested, that is to say the drilling that we carried out in the mosque, by Sones, will be returned to the State.” These words come from the Minister of Hydraulics and Sanitation, Cheikh Tidiane Dièye, on a visit to Tivaouane, as part of the preparations for the Gamou. “We have already made all the arrangements at the Ministry level, all the administrative procedures are being accelerated so that the process is completed before the Gamou so that the President of the Republic can have the pleasure of giving this important work which will not only definitively resolve the issue of water in the mosque, but also be able to inject this water into the city’s distribution network to strengthen it and allow the people of Tivaouane to have drinking water permanently,” said Mr. Dièye. In Tivaouane, the Minister said, “everything is being implemented and in place,” and reassured: “by the Gamou everything will be ready, we will be able to deliver all the work that has been done so that our compatriots who will come to Tivaouane can spend a Gamou in excellent conditions and that they can pray for Senegal, pray for the projects that the President of the Republic is carrying out, the first of which are water and sanitation.”
MONEY LAUNDERING SENEGAL, A GOOD STUDENT
The Senegalese authorities have been congratulated for the “very strong, demanding and firm measures” taken to combat money laundering. This satisfaction comes from the governor of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), Jean-Claude Kassi Brou. ”I would like to congratulate Senegal. The authorities […] have taken very strong, demanding and firm measures” in the fight against the injection of funds of criminal origin into the economic and financial circuit, stressed the head of the BCEAO who held a press briefing yesterday, at the end of the third annual ordinary meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of the eight WAEMU countries. A study by the Institute for Security Studies published in 2022 ranked Senegal eighth out of twenty countries where ”the risks of money laundering and terrorist financing” were worrying. Senegal has taken ”very strong measures […] to really get off this list,” acknowledged the BCEAO governor. ”I think one of the key measures was the new law against money laundering and the fight against the financing of terrorism,” he explained. ”We can only be satisfied,” added Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, who recalled that the BCEAO’s wish is that none of its member countries appear on a list like the one published by the Institute for Security Studies in 2022. ”This has a very negative impact in terms of perception and it affects credit risk and investments, on the mobilization of resources and savings,” stressed the BCEAO governor. According to him, the Central Bank works ”very closely with the authorities” of member countries to help them avoid the ”grey” area of money laundering risks.
