Authorities at Cheikh Anta Diop University (UCAD), West Africa’s premier academic institution, have indefinitely suspended all student associations and shuttered campus residences following a violent confrontation with security forces that left one medical student dead.
The decision, announced late Thursday by the UCAD Academic Council, comes after a week of chaos that has transformed the Dakar campus into a flashpoint for national frustration over economic instability and student welfare. The university stated the suspension of student groups was on a "precautionary basis" intended to restore order and ensure the safety of the remaining campus community.
The fatality of Abdoulaye Ba, a second-year dental medicine student, has become a rallying cry for thousands of students across the country. Ba reportedly died from head injuries sustained on Monday evening during a police intervention on campus. While the government has officially termed the event a "tragedy", the Medical Students' Association alleges that Ba was assaulted by security forces within the confines of his own dormitory room.
Interior Minister Mouhamadou Bamba Cisse defended the police presence on campus, asserting that security forces were responding to students who were attempting to vandalise university infrastructure. However, the government also took the rare step of acknowledging incidents of "police brutality" during the operation, promising a high-level investigation to "shed full light" on the circumstances of the death.
The unrest was triggered by months of unpaid scholarship stipends. For many of UCAD’s 80,000 students, these payments are the sole source of income for food and housing. Delays in the academic calendar, caused by previous years of political instability, have created a bureaucratic backlog that has left students like Ousmane Sow, an economics major, without funds for months.
"They spoke of reforms, but in my view it is a removal," Sow told Africanews, referring to government proposals to restructure backlogged payments. "They said they would only pay the main amount without paying the arrears. That is why many students rejected this proposal."
The immediate closure of dormitories on Tuesday forced thousands of students to evacuate with only a few hours' notice. AFP journalists reported scenes of students huddled outside the university gates with their luggage, many lacking the financial means to return to their home provinces.
Government spokeswoman Marie-Rose Khady Fatou Faye expressed the state’s deepest condolences to the Ba family and urged for "restraint and responsibility" from all stakeholders. Despite these calls for calm, the student movement has remained defiant, with a collective of student associations holding top government officials responsible for the escalation.
As of Friday morning, the campus remains heavily guarded by riot police. While the academic council has not provided a timeline for the reopening of residences or the reinstatement of student groups, the state has pledged that the investigation into Ba's death will involve the Ministers of Justice and the Interior to ensure accountability.