|
Dakar's hawkers riot again
22/11/2007 18:02 - (SA)
Dakar - Sporadic riots broke out in the Senegalese capital on Thursday against a ban on street hawking - the day after one of the country's most violent protests in recent decades.
Anti-riot police fired tear gas to disperse a group of around 200 stone-throwing vendors accompanied by bands of unemployed youths in downtown Dakar.
"They are small skirmishes, but the situation is under control," a police officer said.
Police said at least 200 people had been arrested following violent protests that rocked the otherwise stable west African country on Wednesday.
Hundreds of vendors had rampaged across the city burning old tyres in the usually traffic-choked streets and brought the bustling capital to a standstill.
Vendors disrupted formal sector
Police broke up those riots and a separate protest march that was about to be staged by labour unions over the soaring cost of living.
President Aboudlaye Wade, in office since 2000, last week ordered the eviction of the street vendors who had set up shop on pavements across the city, saying they were disrupting the formal business sector.
The president, who is set to host a major summit of Islamic nations in March next year, said uncontrolled street vending had cost the country about $185m due to traffic jams that were putting off investors.
In a recent study, the World Bank found that 95% of workers in Senegal are in the informal sector, noting that 27.5% of employable Senegalese have no jobs.
Other estimates however put the unemployment rate at 40% in Africa's westernmost country of 11.7 million people, whose main sources of livelihood are fishing and agriculture.
|
News
