Senegal
Senegal in talks to procure Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine
The West African state is already participating in Covax, a global collaboration scheme with pharmaceutical firms to ensure equitable distribution of COVID-19...
Modou Niang, a taxi driver in Parcelles Assainies, said the curfew began just when he was supposed to start work.
The government closed its borders, schools, and mosques when the virus first hit in March, as well as banning large gatherings and travel between cities, and imposing a night-time curfew.
The Senegalese troops were part of a West African force first deployed in January 2017. They were there to assure a smooth transition of power after outgoing president Yahya Jammeh refused to concede defeat.
Aid needs are likely to surpass 2019 levels, according to the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The R&B star, boasting two multi-platinum albums, told a news conference he had laid the first stone for the city in the Atlantic Ocean village of Mbodiene around 100 kilometres south of the Senegalese capital Dakar.
In a televised speech, Sall pointed to the economic fallout of the pandemic, saying that growth in the impoverished country would slow "from to 6.8% to 1.1% or even less".
The measure is precautionary as an initial COVID-19 test of President Macky Sall has come back negative.
More than 70 people were arrested on Wednesday after demonstrations, focused on the curfew, broke out in several cities.
Students in the last three years of high school had been scheduled to return on Tuesday but in the middle of the night, the education ministry announced the much-awaited move was being delayed 'until a later date'.
Schools were scheduled to gradually resume on Tuesday, after weeks of shutdown due to the pandemic. Senegal has recorded 3,739 positive COVID-19 cases since the start of the outbreak, with 43 deaths.
Mosques will be reopened for prayers during the holy month of Ramadan, and churches will also be allowed to accept worshippers.
Senegal has shut its borders, banned travel between cities, and imposed a strict dusk-to-dawn curfew in a bid to curb the contagion, also mandating mask-wearing in government and commercial sites.
Both chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are drugs ordinarily used to treat malaria, but early small-scale studies suggest they reduce virus levels among people badly infected by COVID-19.
The government plans to purchase tonnes of rice, pasta, sugar and cooking oil in order to help some of the country's poorest, according to a public tender published in local newspapers.
The rapid spread of the new coronavirus has increased fears of a pandemic, prompting governments to step up control measures and sending global financial markets into a dive.
It is the second confirmed case in sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria, where an Italian national returned with the virus.
"The whole African continent is worried about the consequences of what is happening in Libya," he said during a press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Senegalese capital Dakar.
The airline confirmed on Twitter that its Boeing 767 aircraft had to land unexpectedly at Senegal’s Blaise Diagne International Airport near the capital Dakar because of 'a technical problem'.