02/02/2013 14:18 GMT

DAKAR, Feb 02, 2013 (AFP) - Suspected separatist rebels in Senegal's Casamance region killed three people including a Frenchman in an attack on a bank, and two of the assailants were killed in a subsequent clash with Senegalese troops, the army said Saturday.

The attackers, suspected to be members of the Casamance Movement for Democratic Forces (MDFC), raided the Credit Mutuel bank and nearby shops in the town of Kafountine on Friday night, killing at least three civilians including a French national, the army said.

12/25/2012 07:17 GMT

Par Malick Rokhy BÂ

DAKAR, 25 déc 2012 (AFP) - Le conflit indépendantiste de Casamance, dans le sud du Sénégal, a trente ans: en dépit de plusieurs accords de paix, il a fait des milliers de victimes et dévasté l'économie d'une région à fort potentiel agricole et touristique.

08/29/2012 04:51 GMT

DAKAR, Aug 29, 2012 (AFP) - Senegal's President Macky Sall wants to abolish the Senate and use the money saved for the fight against floods that have claimed at least 13 lives in two weeks.

After cutting short a private visit to South Africa to return to Dakar because of the severe flooding, Sall announced late Tuesday that he would introduce an emergency bill to abolish the upper house.

08/14/2012 13:36 GMT

DAKAR, Aug 14, 2012 (AFP) - Six people and a baby died early Tuesday as heavy rains pounded the Senegalese capital Dakar, causing partial home collapses, the national fire brigade said.

Colonel Alioune Ndiaye said the fire department arrived in the suburb of Yarakh in the east of Dakar at 5:00 am (local and GMT) at a wooden home where a wall collapsed, leaving six people dead and four seriously injured.

About two hours earlier, another wall collapsed in a home in the northern suburb of Grand-Medine.

05/18/2012 03:01

by Coumba Sylla

WODOBERE, Senegal, May 18, 2012 (AFP) - In the northeastern nook of Senegal, one of the most stable and developed nations in the drought-hit Sahel region, carcasses of cattle lie in the sun, the fields have withered and food depleted.

As scanty rains wreaked havoc across the belt, hitting drought-weary Chad, Niger, Mali and other countries, this west African hub is struggling to provide food to its people and entire villages are going hungry.

04/27/2012 14:01 GMT

GENEVA, April 27, 2012 (AFP) - The World Food Programme (WFP) said Friday it plans to deliver emergency food aid to more than 850,000 people in drought-hit Senegal by October, more than doubling its programme there.

Senegal's dry season has come early this year, compounding the devastating impact of a drought across west Africa's Sahel region that damaged harvests last year.

"Overall more than one million people are estimated to be food insecure in Senegal," a WFP spokeswoman told journalists in Geneva.

03/26/2012 12:09 GMT

PARIS, 26 mars 2012 (AFP) - L'Afrique et de nombreux pays dans le monde ont applaudi lundi l'alternance pacifique du pouvoir au Sénégal qui a consacré la victoire de l'opposant Macky Sall sur le président sortant Abdoulaye Wade, y voyant un exemple pour l'ensemble du continent.

Le Sénégal est souvent cité comme l'un des rares modèles de démocratie en Afrique, en particulier dans l'Ouest régulièrement secoué par des violences politico-militaires, comme le coup d'Etat qui a renversé la semaine dernière au Mali voisin le président Amadou Toumani Touré.

02/24/2012 10:32 GMT -

by Fran Blandy

DAKAR, February 24, 2012 (AFP) - Senegal readied Friday for a day of rallies and protests wrapping up a presidential election campaign marked by violence over incumbent Abdoulaye Wade's contentious candidacy for a third term in office.

One of Africa's democratic success stories, the continent's westernmost state is facing its most tumultuous polls since independence after weeks of riots over the 85-year-old leader's efforts to cling to power which have left six dead.

DAKAR, February 22, 2012 (AFP) - Senegal, where presidential elections are taking place on February 26, is the only country in mainland west Africa not to have undergone a coup since independence in 1960.

The former French colony has been headed since 2000 by Abdoulaye Wade, who is seeking a controversial third term.

The following is a factfile on the country: