Senegal’s public transport workers launched a fresh strike on Tuesday to protest high fuel prices and police harassment, leaving many stranded on their way to work, AFP journalists reported.
“We have begun a three-day strike to demand notably a decrease in fuel prices, a halt to harassment and social protection. Adherence is at 95 percent in Dakar and 100 percent in the interior,” said Aliou Soum, a leader of the National Union of Senegalese Road Transporters.
However some unions were not following the strike as many people were travelling to different religious centres around the country ahead of the Maouloud religious holiday celebrating the birth of the prophet Mohammed on February 4.
In the usually traffic-clogged capital Dakar, cars flowed smoothly without the thousands of yellow taxis typically in circulation. A few minibuses and taxis could be seen but many people waited in vain for transport, an AFP journalist reported.
Earlier this month a two-day public transport strike saw people resort to horse-drawn carts to get around, and those who did not follow the strike were forced off the road.
Interior Minister Ousmane Ngom on Tuesday warned against violence saying “no hindrance, passive or violent, will be tolerated as others exercise their right to carry out their normal work.”
