Djbril Camara remembers thinking that it was the wildest demonstration yet, the thunderclap of teargas almost constant. Then a shocking new sound: the crack of a live bullet. Camara scrambled to the roof of his block of flats.
Below, the protest had descended into pandemonium. People were shrieking as they ran. Plumes of teargas billowed across the Niarry Tally district of Dakar, Senegal’s capital.
Four hundred metres east, out of Camara’s sightline, a body lay in the street. Protesters kept attempting to retrieve it. But every time they got close, the police aimed another volley of teargas. “The police wouldn’t let them get near,” said Camara, 32.
Downstairs, his older brother, Omar, was heading out to sunset prayers at the mosque. “The protest sounded crazier than previous ones – and that was saying something,” said Omar.
The continent’s experiment with liberal democracy has hit a ‘reality check’
At least, for once, their other brother, Abdoulaye, known to most people as the rapper Baba Khan, was not involved – or so they thought.
But as Omar left their
