Senegal Streets Empty As Transport Workers Extend Strike

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Senegal’s transport unions went on open-ended strike Friday over alleged police harassment and illicit competition, paralysing the capital Dakar and other regions.

Many people were unable to go to work or send their children to school in the capital without buses or taxis to take them, AFP journalists and witnesses said.

Patients in Dakar were unable to attend appointments, hospital sources told local media.

In areas outside the capital, drivers on strike stopped state-owned buses from operating, Senegalese media said.

Unions have set down a list of demands that include an end to “harassment by the police” and a crackdown on clandestine drivers who compete illegally with authorised businesses.

Gora Khouma, a union official, said the unions late Thursday decided to extend indefinitely a two-day strike that started on Wednesday after the state failed to respond to their demands.

The strikers rejected an invitation from the transport minister to speak to the unions as a government representative. Khouma said the interior and trade ministries also needed to be involved.

AFP