Man dies after setting himself on fire in Senegal

BY RUKMINI CALLIMACHI

ASSOCIATED PRESS

DAKAR, Senegal -- A man who set himself on fire in front of the presidential palace in Senegal on Friday died from his wounds hours later in the latest self-immolation on the African continent.

Witnesses said the man stood on the sidewalk and doused himself with a flammable liquid, possibly paint thinner or gasoline. It was not immediately clear why he set himself alight, but Abdoulaye Loum, who was at a bus stop nearby when the incident occurred, said the man was holding a piece of paper in his hand which he held up as the flames swallowed him.

The man collapsed to the ground and was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment. A statement read on state TV late Friday said he died at the capital's main hospital.

A private radio station said the man was a soldier and that he was wearing his military fatigues when he set himself on fire.

This self-immolation comes on the heels of similar protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria and Senegal's neighbor to the north, Mauritania.

Tunisia's mutiny that ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was touched off by a struggling 26-year-old university graduate who lit himself on fire after police confiscated his fruit and vegetable cart in December. Other self-immolations then quickly spread elsewhere in northern Africa and the Middle East.

Senegal is a moderate Muslim nation with one of the most established democracies in the region, but the country is facing its worst power outages in a decade and the cost of living has spiraled. There is growing discontent over octogenarian President Abdoulaye Wade's attempt to run for a third term, as well as the increasing influence of his son.

A U.S. diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks warned that father and son appeared to be "preparing the way for a presidential dynastic succession."

An hour after the incident, traffic had gone back to normal. Pieces of the man's burnt clothing lay in a charred circle.

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My mother flew from Southwest Florida to West Africa to spend Christmas and New Year’s with me in Senegal. We visited the enormous African Renaissance statue, whose $27 million price tag has caused controversy in a country that still lacks basic infrastructure. We drove outside of Dakar to visit the animal reserve at Bandia, where giraffes munched on leaves alongside our Jeep and water buffalo lounged in the shade of acacia trees. We saw rhinos and zebras and antelope. Oh, my. And, of course, we ate—boiled shrimp, grilled fish, chicken stewed in sauce. Dakar offers many edible delights, and we tried them all. We celebrated the New Year downtown, welcoming 2011 in a crowd of international and Senegalese friends.