Africa Business

From a makeshift camp in Ethiopia’s Afar region for people displaced by war, herder Abdu Robso stares in bewilderment at the food aid trucks rolling up the nearby hill towards Tigray.

“Why is this food going to Tigray and not feeding us,” the hungry 50-year-old ponders as the World Food Programme convoy slowly winds along the dusty road linking Tigray and the port in neighbouring Djibouti where international aid arrives for the landlocked country.

Along with dozens of men, women and children in the camp in Erebti, an emaciated Abdu says he has been struggling to survive with almost nothing to eat.

The displaced claim they are being ignored while the world focuses on Tigray, the northernmost region ravaged by the brutal conflict that erupted between Tigrayan rebels and Ethiopian federal forces in November 2020.

Fighting has eased since the government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) each declared a truce in March but northern Ethiopia remains in the grip of a humanitarian crisis that has left millions in need of emergency aid.

In January, Abdu and his family had to hastily flee their hometown of Abala, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) away on the border with Tigray when the TPLF bombarded the area and advanced into Afar.

After days of walking and an hours-long truck journey, Abdu along with his wife and several of their 22 children reached a camp for displaced people in Afdera, hundreds of kilometres from Erebti. 

But after the TPLF withdrew from Afar in April, the regional authorities told the displaced to return home, promising help.

Abdu and his family headed back to Erebti, where they are still waiting for aid.

“We answered the call and here we are with nothing,” he said.

– ‘What have we done wrong?’ –

The residents of Erebti take shelter from the searing heat under plastic sheets stretched under trees on the edge of a dry riverbed that lies below the road.

Even as lunchtime approaches, the fires remain unlit. Children eat some fruit taken from the trees. The weakest sleep. 

“Trucks carrying aid for Tigray pass here. What about us? What have we done wrong? Why is no aid coming here? We are also hungry,” protests Aldim Abdela, a 28-year-old shepherd. 

Mustapha Ali Boko says the TPLF knows how to mobilise the strong Tigrayan diaspora and its international networks, built up during the 27 years that the party dominated national politics until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took power in 2018.

“The reason is that Tigray has a strong leadership and we (the Afar) don’t,” the 45-year-old says, complaining of “discrimination” by the international community.

In Erebti, he says, “some sleep on an empty stomach”. 

“People don’t have medicines… they don’t have food and water.”

However, the WFP’s country director for Ethiopia, Claude Jibidar, insisted: “WFP has continuously been delivering food to the Afar region. And I know that sometimes, it’s less talked about but it is being done.”

Across all of northern Ethiopia — Tigray, Afar and Amhara — more than 13 million people are in need of food aid, according to the United Nations.

In July, the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA said the situation in Afar remained “dire with alarming levels of food insecurity and malnutrition” due to the combined effects of drought and conflict, ensuing displacement, lack of market access, and high food prices.

Ali Boko says that the only aid has come from a local charity, the Afar Pastoralist Development Association.

APDA official Valerie Browning, an Australian nurse who is married to an Afar and has lived in the region for 33 years, says she has never seen such extreme conditions.

“No Afar wants the people of Tigray to starve. That’s obvious, but on the other side, the world and the Tigray people and the government of Ethiopia should not want the Afar to starve… and the unfortunate thing is that this is happening,” she says. 

“The humanitarian situation is beyond crisis.”

– ‘Whole town looted’ –

The people in Erebti say it is impossible to return to Abala.

It is now a virtual ghost town, abandoned by residents, its stores all empty, according to AFP journalists who visited.

“I went to Abala, I saw that my house had burned down, all the houses had burned down,” says Ali Boko. “Our homes are destroyed and our cattle have disappeared.”

“The whole town has been looted,” adds Abdu Robso. 

The hospital has been wrecked, its doors and windows destroyed, and stripped of equipment such as resuscitation and X-ray devices, incubators, beds and mattresses.

Only a dozen families have returned. 

Ali Mohammed says his daughter was wounded in the fighting, and so he was unable to go far. 

“They took a lot of things from the house, my TV, my laptop…” says the 45-year-old farmer.

“Conditions are very harsh. The flour is full of weevils. We sift it, but when we eat it it tastes sour. We have no oil, no onions, we eat berbere (a local spice mixture) mixed with water. 

“There is no medicine, no water. We drink water from the river and we get sick,” he says, anxiously awaiting the help that the authorities promised would arrive soon.

“Here we live with monkeys and stray dogs.”

The All Blacks will be desperate to bounce back and prove their critics wrong when they go behind enemy lines to face world champions South Africa on Saturday.

New Zealand clash with the Springboks in Mbombela, then Johannesburg seven days later, in the opening rounds of The Rugby Championship.

The All Blacks have faced a barrage of criticism from pundits and fans in New Zealand since the humbling 2-1 home series defeat to Ireland. They have now lost four of their last five games.

New Zealand’s forwards must front up to the notoriously physical Springboks pack, but centre Rieko Ioane said the backs must also assert themselves.

“There’s plenty to work on,” Ioane told reporters. “We, as backs, need to fire.

“We know that we’re coming up against a world-class outfit.

“We need to get better all over the park, whether it’s on attack or defence.”

He sees the two away Tests against the Springboks as a chance to wipe the slate clean.

“It’s a completely different beast that we’re facing this week,” he added.

“The Irish play how they play and (South) Africa have some similarities, but they’re smart footballers.”

This will be New Zealand’s first match in South Africa for four years and comes with the All Blacks under enormous pressure after only one win in their last five Tests. 

Head coach Ian Foster has had to endure calls to stand aside, with Canterbury Crusaders’ highly successful boss Scott Robertson waiting in the wings having already declared his interest.

In the bitter aftermath of the Ireland defeats, New Zealand Rugby sacked Foster’s assistant coaches John Plumtree and Brad Mooar, bringing in Crusaders forwards coach Jason Ryan.

Scrum-half Aaron Smith said the blunt criticism of both Foster and All Blacks captain Sam Cane has been “hurtful”.

“It’s actually quite ridiculous how ruthless it’s been and I feel for them,” he said before the squad left for South Africa.

“The noise is the noise. The pressure of wearing the black jersey, or coaching it, is big.” 

But Smith said the All Blacks have a great chance in South Africa to prove their critics wrong.  

“There’s nothing better than the challenge of playing South Africa in South Africa, we know what’s coming, and it’s up to us as players to own our part of it and get our own stuff right,” he said.

Veteran lock Sam Whitelock said he has been using his experience of a previous pressure environment to help his team-mates.

“When I first came into the team, we were going into the home Rugby World Cup (of 2011) and there was a lot of external pressure,” he said.

“The best advice I got given from the senior players was ‘look, don’t read into media, don’t worry about all those things, just control what you can control’.

“And that’s the main thing that I’ve been trying to tell the boys. It’s still true now.”

Violent anti-UN protests that rocked eastern Democratic Republic of Congo last week, claiming 36 lives, reflect local anger at persistent insecurity in the turbulent region.

Conflict has raged for three decades across eastern DRC, a mineral-rich region roamed by more than 120 armed groups, which regularly massacre civilians. 

Suspected rebel violence killed around 4,000 civilians in the eastern Congolese provinces of North Kivu and Ituri between 2020 and 2022, according to Kivu Security Tracker, a respected monitor.

Many locals view UN peacekeepers — who first arrived in eastern Congo in 1999 — as standing idly by while militias attack them.

With an annual budget of over $1 billion, the peacekeeping mission known as MONUSCO has more than 16,000 uniformed personnel, according to UN figures from November 2021.

Local anger boiled over on July 25, when anti-UN protesters ransacked MONUSCO bases in North Kivu’s capital Goma. Demonstrations then quickly spread.

The following day, clashes in the town of Butembo led to the deaths of four peacekeepers, according to a government tally published on Monday. Nine civilians were also killed there. 

At total of 36 people were killed over several days of unrest, the government said, including 13 civilians in Goma. 

On July 31, peacekeepers also opened fire and killed three people during an incident on the Congolese-Ugandan border. 

“It often happens that militiamen massacre women, children and elderly people 50 metres (164 feet) away from the Blue Helmets’ positions,” said Losuire Shabani of the pro-democracy movement Fight for Change in the eastern town of Beni.

Antoine-Roger Lokongo, a political scientist at Joseph Kasa-Vubu University in western Congo, said “everything is happening as if MONUSCO has received a mission to subjugate the DRC in complicity with neighbouring countries”.

He accused Rwanda and Uganda of “creating and sustaining armed groups in the east”.

Many in Congo believe that MONUSCO is a front for countries with evil designs on the central African nation. There is little to no evidence to support the idea. 

MONUSCO was not immediately able to respond to questions from AFP. 

However, its spokesman Mathias Gillmann regularly points out that the mission has lost some 400 staff serving in the DRC over the past 22 years, and that it intervenes alongside Congolese armed forces. 

– ‘Enemies of the republic’ –

Pro-democracy movements and some local politicians have been calling for MONUSCO to leave since 2019.

Speaking at a public meeting on July 15, weeks before the protests broke out, senate president Modeste Bahati called on the mission to “pack its bags” and claimed the DRC would defend itself.

Augustin Muhesi, a university professor in North Kivu, said the recent protests were “the consequence of speeches by politicians who pull the strings in the shadows”.

“These speeches are poisoning the atmosphere of distrust that already existed between part of the population and MONUSCO.”

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi told his cabinet on Friday that “appropriate communication” should protect the population from “manipulators, enemies of the republic” who stir up anti-MONUSCO sentiment “to serve their own interests”.

Jason Stearns, director of New York University’s Congo Research Group, said it was “completely possible” that the anti-UN protesters were manipulated.

“But what is clear is that the mission has lost a lot of popularity,” he added.

Muhesi believes the Congolese government must also take responsibility for popular anger.

“If MONUSCO is still in Congo, it’s because the state is yet to escape its institutional fragilities,” he said, explaining that Congolese security forces were too weak to bring peace to the east.

The US and EU envoys for the Horn of Africa on Tuesday urged Ethiopia’s government to resume essential services in Tigray after a rare visit to the war-torn region facing dire conditions.

The northern region has been struggling to cope with food shortages and no access to basic utilities since June 2021, when Tigrayan rebels recaptured it from federal forces after war erupted around 21 months ago.

In recent weeks, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) have both raised the prospect of negotiations to end the brutal conflict.

Diplomatic efforts have also picked up of late, with new US envoy Mike Hammer and EU envoy Annette Weber visiting Ethiopia to hold talks, including with TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael in Tigray.

“A swift restoration of electricity, telecom, banking, and other basic services in Tigray is essential for the people of Tigray,” the two envoys said in a joint statement.

Debretsion, who last week warned that key services would have to be reinstated in Tigray before negotiations could begin, offered “security guarantees for those who need to work to restore services”, the envoys said.

“With this security assurance, there should be no obstacle for the restoration of services to begin,” they added.

The diplomats also called for unfettered aid deliveries to Tigray and the neighbouring conflict-hit regions of Afar and Amhara, and urged the government to lift restrictions on cash and fuel to Tigray.

More than 13 million people need food assistance across northern Ethiopia, according to the UN.

– UN investigators –

The envoys’ visit partially coincided with a trip by UN rights experts to Ethiopia last week as the three-member team attempts to investigate abuses committed in Tigray during the war.

The UN Human Rights Council created the commission last December to probe alleged violations of international human rights, humanitarian and refugee law.

Ethiopia originally rejected the decision to create a commission, calling it “counter-productive”, before eventually approving its arrival in the country.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the commission said it had concluded its first visit to Ethiopia and met with the deputy prime minister, the minister of justice and other senior officials.

“The Commission hopes that the government will provide it with unhindered access without delay, so that it may visit sites and speak freely and privately with survivors, witnesses, and other persons of interest,” it said.

The conflict has driven hundreds of thousands of people to the brink of famine and displaced more than two million, while both sides have been accused of committing serious human rights violations.

Fighting has eased since a humanitarian truce was declared at the end of March.

A 79-run seventh-wicket partnership between Ryan Burl and Luke Jongwe proved crucial as Zimbabwe beat Bangladesh by 10 runs on Tuesday to win a Twenty20 international series between the countries for the first time.

After slumping to 67-6 off 13 overs in the third and final match, Burl and Jongwe smashed eight sixes and six fours between them off 31 balls to offer hope to the hosts.

Both Jongwe (54) and Burl (35) were dismissed during the penultimate over as they looked to hammer medium-pacer Hasan Mahmud over the ropes. 

Zimbabwe finished their 20 overs on 156-8 and, in a tense finish at Harare Sports Club, restricted Bangladesh to 146-8 for a 2-1 series triumph. 

A 17-run victory for Zimbabwe last Saturday was followed one day later by a seven-wicket win for the tourists.

The Zimbabwe total was achieved despite losing their regular top scorer, Pakistan-born Sikandar Raza, for a golden duck.

Mahmud and Mehidy Hasan were the pick of the Bangladesh bowlers, both finishing with identical figures of 2-28 off four overs.

Always slightly behind the required run rate, Bangladesh reached 131-6 off 18 overs, leaving them requiring 26 runs to snatch victory in the match and the series.

Victor Nyauchi, one of three changes to the Zimbabwe team convincingly beaten on Sunday, restricted Bangladesh to seven runs in the penultimate over.

Needing 19 off the final over, Jongwe held his nerve with the ball to secure the win for Zimbabwe. Afif Hossain finished as Bangladesh’s leading scorer with an unbeaten 39 off 27 deliveries. 

Nyauchi took three wickets and Brad Evans, another change after the second T20 loss, claimed two for Zimbabwe, who have won seven of eight matches in the shortest format since the beginning of July.  

The change in fortunes after 3-0 T20 and one-day international whitewashes at home to Afghanistan coincided with the appointment of former star Dave Houghton as national coach. 

Bangladesh were without captain and wicketkeeper Nurul Hasan due to a finger injury, which has also ruled him out of a three-match ODI series beginning in Harare on Friday. 

Somalia has appointed the former deputy leader and spokesman for the Al-Shabaab Islamist group as religion minister, Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said Tuesday. 

The announcement marks a sharp reversal of fortune for Muktar Robow, who has spent the last four years under house arrest after a falling-out with ex-president Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, better known as Farmajo.

Robow, 53, publicly defected from the Al-Qaeda-linked militants in August 2017, with the United States government at one point offering a $5-million bounty for his capture.

“After consultations that took a period of more than 30 days… I’m very happy to present Somali men and women who I have selected based on their academic background, experience and fairness,” Barre said. 

“I’m expecting they will respond to the needs of the country.”

Robow was arrested in late 2018, days before he was scheduled to run in regional elections.

Farmajo’s government accused him of “organising a militia” in Baidoa, the capital of the southwestern Bay region, and seeking to “undermine stability”.

His arrest triggered sporadic protests with demonstrators burning images of Farmajo, whom they accused of meddling in regional affairs.

His elevation comes weeks after recently elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud hinted at his government’s willingness to negotiate with Al-Shabaab, saying it would only happen when the time is right.

Al-Shabaab has waged a bloody insurrection against Somalia’s fragile central government for 15 years and remains a potent force despite an African Union operation against the group.

Its fighters were ousted from Somalia’s capital Mogadishu in 2011, but continue to wage attacks on military, government and civilian targets.

Barre was initially expected to name a cabinet within 30 days of his appointment on June 25 but said the delays were due to the country’s protracted election process that culminated in May with the selection of Mohamud as president.

Tuesday’s appointments include a deputy prime minister, 25 ministers, 24 state ministers and deputy ministers in a 75-member team, with parliament due to vote on the nominees. 

The new government faces a host of challenges, including a looming famine and the grinding Islamist insurgency. 

A crippling drought across the Horn of Africa has left about 7.1 million Somalis — nearly half the population — battling hunger, with more than 200,000 on the brink of starvation, according to UN figures. 

In July, Mohamud said ending the violent insurgency required more than a military approach.

Kenya’s failure to hold police accountable for allegedly killing dozens of people after the 2017 elections heightens the risk of officers abusing their power during next week’s elections, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday.

The US-based rights watchdog said the Kenyan authorities had failed to investigate accusations of police brutality or institute reforms, raising the threat of violence if the results of the August 9 elections are disputed.

“The failure to tackle police abuse in previous Kenyan elections risks emboldening them to continue their misconduct around this year’s general election,” said HRW’s director for East Africa, Otsieno Namwaya. 

Kenyan police are often accused by rights groups of using excessive force and carrying out unlawful killings, especially in poor neighbourhoods.

They have also been accused in the past of running hit squads targeting those investigating alleged rights abuses by police, such as activists and lawyers.

HRW said it had documented the alleged killing of at least 104 people by police during the 2017 election, mostly supporters of then opposition leader Raila Odinga. 

Heavily-armed police were deployed to disperse demonstrators after Odinga refused to accept President Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory.

“With just seven days to another general election, Kenyan authorities have yet to take steps to ensure justice for police abuses that characterised the 2017 general elections,” the rights group said. 

HRW said it had interviewed activists, government officials, police officers and victims’ families who voiced fears that law enforcers “would respond abusively” to any violence or public protests if disputes arose after the vote.

– ‘Transparency and accountability’ –

On Tuesday, Kenyans will be electing a new president as well as hundreds of members of parliament and about 1,500 county officials.

About 150,000 officers will be deployed to ensure the safety of the polls, police chief Hilary Mutyambai has said.

This year’s presidential vote is seen as a two-horse race between Deputy President William Ruto and Odinga, who is now backed by Kenyatta and the ruling party.

With its diverse population and large ethnic voting blocs, Kenya has long suffered politically motivated communal violence around election time, notably after a 2007 poll when more than 1,100 people died, scarring the nation’s psyche.

At least 16 civil society groups on Tuesday called for a peaceful vote as they launched a platform to monitor the polls, saying it would “increase transparency and accountability”.

“We have synergised our efforts and decided to coordinate… to have a rapid and efficient response,” said the head of election observer group ELOG, Anne Ireri. 

The responsibility for a peaceful poll should not only be reserved for the electoral agency, said Felix Owuor, executive director of the Electoral Law and Governance Institute for Africa (ELGIA).

“Collectively we can have an election that is credible.”

Kenya’s failure to hold police accountable for allegedly killing dozens after the 2017 elections heightens the risk of officers abusing their power when the country heads to the polls next week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Tuesday.

The rights watchdog said authorities had failed to investigate accusations of police brutality or institute reforms, raising the threat of violence if the results of next week’s elections are disputed.

“The failure to tackle police abuse in previous Kenyan elections risks emboldening them to continue their misconduct around this year’s general election,” HRW’s director for East Africa, Otsieno Namwaya, said. 

Kenya’s police is often accused by rights groups of using excessive force and carrying out unlawful killings, especially in poor neighbourhoods.

They have also been accused in the past of running hit squads targeting those — including activists and lawyers — investigating alleged rights abuses by police.

HRW said it had documented the alleged killing of at least 104 people by the police during the last election in 2017, mostly supporters of then opposition leader Raila Odinga. 

Heavily-armed police officers were deployed to disperse demonstrators after Odinga refused to accept President Uhuru Kenyatta’s victory.

“With just seven days to another general election, Kenyan authorities have yet to take steps to ensure justice for police abuses that characterized the 2017 general elections,” the rights group said. 

On August 9, Kenyans will elect a new president as well as hundreds of members of parliament and about 1,500 county officials.

This year’s presidential vote is largely a two-horse race between Deputy President William Ruto and Odinga, who is now backed by Kenyatta and the ruling party.

With its diverse population and large ethnic voting blocs, Kenya has long suffered politically motivated communal violence around election time, notably after a 2007 poll when more than 1,100 people died, scarring the nation’s psyche.

HRW said it had interviewed activists, government officials, police officers and victims’ families who worried law enforcers “would respond abusively” to any violence or public protests if disputes arose after next week’s vote.

In his final weeks as president, Uhuru Kenyatta has been busier than usual playing peacemaker in East Africa, thawing tensions with Somalia, intervening in Congo’s crisis, and hosting talks between Sudan and Ethiopia.

His enthusiasm for statesmanship has not gone unrecognised — Kenya’s departing leader was recently awarded the national order of Burundi, and gifted a resplendent sash from fellow presidents for his regional diplomacy.

But with Kenyatta leaving office after almost a decade, Kenya’s allies are anxiously wondering what is next for a country that has evolved into a trusted ally and democratic anchor in a troubled region.

The August 9 election to replace Kenyatta, who cannot run for a third term, has elevated tensions and evoked the spectre of instability that has plagued Kenya’s votes.

Diplomats and foreign observers say a peaceful transfer of power remains uncertain, and that Kenya’s coveted reputation as a reliable and stable partner faces a keen test as voters head to polling booths. 

The frontrunners, William Ruto and Raila Odinga, have pledged to concede defeat if the election is free and fair.

But both candidates have been accused of inciting previous electoral violence, and the race is too close to call, raising jitters in Western capitals as the high-stakes transition draws near.

– Reliable partner – 

Foreign partners have increasingly relied on Kenya as a steady hand in East Africa, and fear an internal crisis would deprive the region of stability and leadership at a critical time.

“Weak states, feuding states, can’t play the role of a diplomatic anchor,” said Cameron Hudson, a former US official now senior associate at CSIS Africa.

He said Kenya had surpassed Ethiopia as the region’s “new diplomatic powerhouse” since Kenyatta took office in 2013.

This has seen Kenyatta personally intervene in crises where regional institutions such as the African Union and IGAD — both historically close to Addis Ababa — have been slow to act.

Late last year, as a rebel advance on Ethiopia’s capital provoked international alarm, Kenyatta flew unannounced to Addis Ababa to urge Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to find a peaceful solution. 

The rebels from the northern Tigray region said in July that any potential ceasefire talks must be mediated by Kenyatta — not the African Union, which is headquartered in Addis Ababa.

In June, as eastern Congo spiralled into violence, Kenyatta called East African leaders to his official residence, proposing that Kenya oversee a regional peacekeeping mission to the conflict zone.

Internationally, too, Kenya has sought to project greater influence and stand on its own.

In February, as other African states responded with equivocation, Kenya strongly condemned Russia’s aggression in Ukraine at the UN Security Council, where Nairobi sought and won a temporary seat two years earlier. 

– Passionate emissary – 

Such interventions have been warmly welcomed by foreign allies including the United States, which bases troops in Kenya, and needs its support countering violent Islamists in Somalia.

Washington valued Kenyatta as a trusted envoy in regional crises where they had made little headway, analysts said.

“He is probably the African leader the US president has spoken to the most,” Hudson said.

Washington is “investing a great deal to ensure that stability continues through these elections”, he added.

Ruto and Odinga flew to London and Washington earlier this year to assure policymakers that Nairobi would continue to play a pivotal role in the region.

Diplomats say there is unlikely to be major foreign policy changes under either candidate.

“But it will not be a priority,” said Macharia Munene, professor of history and international relations at the United States International University in Nairobi.

“I don’t think either Raila or Ruto have the passion for this sort of thing, whereas for Uhuru, it’s a passion.”

In any case, he said Kenyatta’s successor would have “bigger fish to fry” than dealing with regional headaches.

East Africa’s largest economy is saddled with debt and the next administration could be pressured by international lenders to slash populist subsidies despite having promised to bring down prices.

“We’re just concerned about how much time Kenya will be able to spend on foreign policy and regional mediation, if it’s grappling with so much at home,” said Meron Elias, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.

– ‘Everybody nervous’ – 

Kenya’s international standing couldn’t have been worse when Kenyatta took office in 2013 despite -– or perhaps because of -– being indicted by the International Criminal Court on crimes against humanity.

The new administration was accused of frustrating the investigation into Kenyatta and his deputy, Ruto, over their alleged role in orchestrating the 2007 post-election violence that left over 1,100 people dead.

The cases against the pair -– who campaigned on a platform of nationalism and confronting the ICC -– were dropped, with prosecutors citing a lack of evidence and relentless witness intimidation.

There are fears “the relationship which has improved in the last few years could go sideways again” depending how the transition plays out, said a US analyst and veteran observer of Kenyan elections who declined to be named.

“Everybody is obviously nervous,” the analyst said.

Senegal’s opposition and President Macky Sall’s ruling coalition on Monday both claimed to have won legislative elections in the West African country, while the vote count continued.

“What is undeniable is that it is we who won this election,” Khalifa Sall, one of the opposition leaders, said at a press conference.

“We won and we will not accept that our victory is stolen from us,” he said.

Macky Sall’s ruling coalition, however, maintained that it had won while acknowledging the opposition had made some gains in Sunday’s elections.

“We reject any possibility of cohabitation and … reassure our activists that we remain in the majority at the end of this election, despite an advance by the opposition,” former prime minister Aminata Toure, who led the presidential coalition’s list in the elections, said late Monday.

The opposition hoped the elections would impose a cohabitation, or divided government, on Sall and curb any ambitions he may have for a third term.

The polls, the last before presidential elections in 2024, were an important test for Sall after local elections in January saw the opposition win in major cities, including the capital Dakar, Ziguinchor in the south and Thies in the west.

Toure on Sunday night claimed to have won 30 of the 46 departments in the country and overseas constituencies.

“This undoubtedly gives us a majority in the National Assembly,” she said, while acknowledging her coalition had been defeated in Dakar.

– Opposition collaboration –

The main opposition coalition, however, expressed “astonishment” at Toure’s remarks, claiming it had won a “comfortable majority” and that the presidential camp was “looking to once again confiscate the vote”.

“We call on national and international opinion to act as witnesses against any attempt to manipulate the results,” the opposition said in a statement Monday.

Ahead of the election, Yewwi Askan Wi (“Liberate the People” in Wolof, one of Senegal’s national languages), the main opposition coalition headed by Ousmane Sonko, who came third in the 2019 presidential election, joined forces with Wallu Senegal (“Save Senegal”), led by former president Abdoulaye Wade.

The two groups agreed to work together to obtain a parliamentary majority and “force governmental cohabitation”.

“The provisional results of the legislative elections show that the President of the Republic Macky Sall lost the elections … and that he will not have a majority in the National Assembly,” Wallu Senegal declared Monday.

The coalition also said prominent politicians including former prime minister Toure had been beaten.

– Close race –

Provisional overall results are due no later than Friday, but initial indications sugget the poll was close and that the main opposition coalition had gained ground, particularly in urban areas, according to local media.

The single round of voting will decide the 165 seats of the single-chamber parliament — currently controlled by the president’s supporters — for the next five years.

Sall has promised to appoint a prime minister — a position he abolished and then restored in December 2021 — from the winning camp.

Some seven million Senegalese were eligible to vote in the election, which passed without any major incidents.

Turnout at several polling stations appeared relatively low, according to AFP correspondents and observers, and the interior ministry said the participation rate was 47 percent.

Yahya Sall, a retired soldier, said he hoped the new parliament “will have a strong opposition presence… to advance democracy”.

Lawmakers are elected according to a system that combines proportional representation, with national lists for 53 lawmakers and majority voting in the country’s departments for 97 others.

The diaspora elects the remaining 15 members of parliament.

The vote took place against a backdrop of rising prices, partly because of the Ukraine war.

The opposition has questioned the priorities of the government, which has highlighted its subsidies for oil products and food as well as infrastructure building. 

Sall, 60, was elected in 2012 for seven years then re-elected in 2019 for another five. He has been accused of wanting to break the two-term limit and run again in 2024.

He has remained vague on the subject, but any defeat of his supporters in Sunday’s vote could upset such plans.

The 21-day election campaign passed in a mostly calm atmosphere.

The pre-campaign period, however, was marked by violent demonstrations that left at least three people dead after several members of the main opposition coalition, including Sonko, were banned from taking part.

On June 29, the opposition eased tensions by agreeing to take part in the elections, which it had threatened to boycott.