The African Human Rights and Peoples Court based in Arusha, Tanzania, has said that it was incompetent to examine a request to suspend the judicial proceedings in Senegal against Chad's former president Hissein Habré.

Politics under Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade has come to represent a depressingly familiar picture of elite dominance and broad social inequality, writes Amy Niang. With no clear succession plan in place and the state's legitimacy continuing to erode, the absence of an institutionalised effort to achieve stability in the political system remains a salient obstacle to democratic change, argues Niang.

The community of Thiénaba is located in western Senegal. Here, as in other Senegalese communities, most of the farmland is controlled by men. But there are five acres under the control of women. A women’s group called Fass Jom (which means “make do” in the local language of Wolof) has secured this land for its members.

The findings of a study on early childhood education in Senegal shows that 92 per cent of children in that country are out of the pre-school system. According to the report, out of 1,306,214 who can get pre-school education in the country, only 99,038 attend a development structure for early childhood. This means that 1,207,176 are not supported by the pre-school system.

Senegal has admitted that it gave a "money gift" to an International Monetary Fund official earlier this month at the end of his three-year posting, citing an African tradition of offering goodbye presents. The gift, which the IMF said amounted to 100,000 euros and $50,000, was returned within days by IMF representative Alex Segura, who had been an outspoken critic of the West African nation's budget process during his posting.

Some 14,955 Mauritanian refugees, consisting of 3,888 families, have been repatriated from Senegal to Mauritania since the end of January 2008, under a tripartite agreement signed in November 2007 by both countries and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

This is a video featuring a presentation on the role of women in peace-building efforts in the Casamance by Mme. Seynabou Male Cissé, coordinator of USOFORAL. She was invited to present on this topic by Leadership Africa USA that is running a leadership training program for young women in Casamance. The presentation is in French.

In Diohine, a village of some 3,000 inhabitants in the Fatick region of central Senegal, real progress has been made towards educating all children, in spite of a lack of infrastructure. Diohine has two public primary schools, each serving different neighbourhoods, and a third, privately-run Catholic school that was the first to be established, in 1948.

The management of Wal Fadjri told ARTICLE 19 on the phone that the 'talibes' (disciples) of religious leader Serigne Modou Kara Mbacke broke into the premises of the broadcasting company at 14h45 on 25 September 2009 wielding clubs and iron bars. The disciples wrecked part of the equipment in the marketing department and sacked the office of the head of administration.

Senegal has called for United Nations support for the “Great Green Wall” project in which African countries have agreed to plant trees in a band across the breadth of the continent to try to lessen the effects of desertification. President Abdoulaye Wade told the General Assembly’s annual high-level debate that he wishes the UN will endorse the project, “which contributes to the protection of the environment,” help in the battle against climate change and would mobilize thousands of people.

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) has signed a five-year poverty reduction compact granting $540 million to the Republic of Senegal for road rehabilitation and food security initiatives in some of the poorest regions of Senegal. The grant was signed by the Acting Chief Executive Officer Darius Mans and Senegalese Minister of Finance and Economy Abdoulaye Diop, with the US Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal presiding at the signing held at the US State Department in Washington, D.C.

Internet cafés are in decline in Senegal. These access points to knowledge and communication, once found on every street corner in Dakar and open day and night, are no longer so widely available. Thanks to the infrastructure and development of bandwidth put in place by incumbent operator Sonatel, the high cost of internet has fallen rapidly, from XOF 1,000 (USD 2.15) or 1,500 (USD 3.25) to XOF 300 (USD 0.65) or 200 (USD 0.43) an hour, making it possible for more people, from students to street vendors to private consultants, to surf the net from home (for those who can afford it) or elsewhere at a relatively accessible price.

A criminal charge of "disturbing public peace and spreading false news" brought against Madiambal Diagne, managing editor of the Quotidien newspaper in 2004 was on July 20, 2009 dismissed by an Appeal court in Dakar, the capital of Senegal.

The Senegalese Prime minister, Souleymane Ndéné Ndiaye, said on Thursday that he would soon hold nationwide talks with the local media, urging actors in the sector to have a daily dialogue with the government. Speaking in Dakar he expressed regret about recent misunderstandings in the relations between the government and some privately-owned media.

A magistrate court in Dakar, capital of Senegal on June 16, 2009 sentenced two journalists of the Week-End, a privately-owned weekly magazine, to three months imprisonment for defaming Mme Aida Mbodji, second deputy speaker of the country’s national assembly.

A magistrate’s court in Dakar, capital of Senegal, on June 3, 2009 suspended the circulation of June 2009 edition of L’Essentiel, a monthly current affairs magazine and ordered its seizure over headlines on the cover-page that the court claimed were an “insult” to President Abdoulaye Wade. According to the presiding magistrate the headlines: “Freemasonry: The Grand Lodge of France Conquers Senegal”, “Nine years after change, the state explodes, The Mourides are in control and Touba in suffering”, were not only insulting to President Wade but also “likely to disturb public order”.

The body of a man believed to be homosexual has twice been dug up from a Muslim cemetery in Senegal. The man, in his 30s, was first buried on Saturday before residents of the western town of Thies dug up his body and left it near his grave, police say. His family then reburied him, but he was once more exhumed by people who did not want him buried there. His body was dumped outside the family house.

The number of Mauritanian refugees that have returned home from years of exile in Senegal under a programme launched by the United Nations refugee agency last year has now topped 10,000. Amath Thioye was named the 10,000th returnee and was part of a convoy carrying 360 Mauritanians that arrived in the town of Boghé in southwest Brakna province last week, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

An environmental NGO in northern Senegal is about to go to market with “green charcoal” – a household fuel produced from agricultural waste materials to replace wood and charcoal in cooking stoves. Given that Senegal’s trees are disappearing, finding viable alternatives is a must, a Ministry of Energy official says. At least half of Senegal’s 13 million people rely on wood and charcoal for household fuel, while 40 percent relying on petrol products like butane gas, the ministry says.

The court of appeal in Senegal has freed nine gay men imprisoned in January 2009 for “acts against nature and the creation of a criminal organisation.” An international outcry followed the convictions of the men, who were members of an HIV prevention organisation. They were arrested at the home of an HIV outreach worker near the Senegalese capital Dakar in December 2008. Condoms and lubricant were confiscated by the police as evidence of “improper and unnatural acts.”