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SENEGAL – The Grand Magal de Touba: a commemorative feast

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This Thursday, September 15, 2022 is a great day for the Mouride community of Senegal. They pay tribute to one of the earth’s most revered Cheick: Cheick Amadou Bamba. The Mouride community celebrated the Grand Magal de Touba in Senegal. Many “talibés mourides” wanted to be present at the ceremony that took place in Touba, nearly 200 kilometres from the city of Dakar.

This is one of the events that most attract Senegalese and other people from the Mouride community around the world. The Grand Magal de Touba is an unmissable event for most Senegalese; it is of such importance that it is declared a public holiday in Senegal. Schools and administrations have closed their doors. The Magal de Touba is the commemoration of the memory of the departure in exile of Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba, founder of the brotherhood of Mourides (Al mouridiyyah), in exile in Gabon. This religious feast marks above all the date of the birth of the Mouride brotherhood.

Magal is a Wolof term meaning “to honour, celebrate, magnify”, and Touba is the city where the Sheikh settled. The city of Touba is strengthened in its status as a beacon and place of worship where history and legend, religious commemorations and songs, recollection and folklore confront each other. The Magal was not originally a party. Everyone in his house immolated a ram or a bull in homage to the Cheick. Little by little, this commemoration has taken on a new dimension and has significantly changed the way of life of Senegalese. The first ideas to make the pilgrimage to Touba came from Sheikh Mouhamadou Fadilou Mbacké. He initiated the celebration of the Grand Magal de Touba as we know it today. He asks the talibés to go to Touba every 14 or 15 of September.

Who was Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba?
Born in 1855, Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba comes from a line of marabouts. He creates his own Sufi way. Around 1886, his great-grandfather founded the town of M’Backé. His real name Ahmed Ben Mohamed Ben Abib Allah, Sheikh Amadou Bamba founded his own city (Touba) and his own religious community: mouridisme. Muridism comes from the Arabic “Al Mourid, which means “aspirant”. When the prerogatives of the Murid Caliph General slip into politics, he becomes «Serigne Touba». In West Africa, it is not uncommon to see his portrait plated in the back of some minicars. Cheick Amadou Bamba died on July 19, 1927 in Ndiareme in Diourbel. His body was sent to Touba for burial. He now rests in Touba inside the Touba mosque. He remains one of the leading figures of Sufism in the Senegal region as founder of the Mourides brotherhood.

Thanks to the Sheikh, Touba has concentrated important economic activities. The city of Touba has become an important place of Muslim pilgrimage. The sons and grandchildren of the Sheikh settled there.

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EDUCATION

CAMEROON – 7 million children deprived of birth certificates, a national issue

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In Cameroon, about 7 million children, including more than 1.5 million in school, do not have a birth certificate. The absence of this essential document for access to education, health and other public services, particularly affects rural areas and the regions of the Far North, Northwest and Southwest. The subject was discussed during the 3rd International Economic Days of Municipalities (JEICOM), held from June 2 to 4, 2025, at the Palais des Congrès in Yaoundé.

A deplorable situation at the moment when Cameroon is celebrating the 5th edition of Children’s Day under the theme “Child-sensitive budgeting and planning: a strategic lever for the promotion and protection of children’s rights”.

Faced with the constant problem of establishing birth certificates in Cameroon, the government, through the National Civil Registry Office (BUNEC), collaborates with partners such as UNICEF or the World Bank in order to provide an effective response to the phenomenon.

In this dynamic, the Bunec provides the town halls with tools to ensure a “compliant and reliable registration of births”. It also supports them in the modernization of the civil status system, including the digitization of registers. UNICEF has enabled some town halls to strengthen their human resources capacities and develop innovative strategies.

Several initiatives were launched, notably the national forum on universal birth registration, organized in April 2024, which brought together mayors, civil status officials, and partners to discuss solutions to the problem.

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SOCIETY

IVORY COAST – Five dead in a violent mutiny at the Bouake prison

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A violent mutiny broke out this Tuesday, June 3, 2025, at the Maison Pénale de Bouaké in Ivory Coast. While the Prison Administration was conducting a routine search within the establishment, it encountered hostility from the inmates of Building E. According to the prosecutor’s statement, they “were attacking them with the help of clubs, machetes and other blunt objects.” To clear themselves, the agents were forced to carry out warning shots in order to cover their retreat.

Unfortunately, this incident led to a heavy toll: “the death of five (05) detainees is to be deplored. Twenty-nine (29) injured, including six (06) prison officers and twenty-three (23) detainees, were also recorded,” said the public prosecutor. He specifies that the injured were taken care of and a coroner was requested for findings of use in such circumstances.

The rapid intervention of the forces of the Gendarmerie and the National Police allowed to limit the violence and restore order. The search operation then continued without further incidents. She led to the discovery of “several blocks of cannabis, platelets of Tramadol tablets, eighteen (18) mobile phones, including eight (08) smartphones, three (03) grenades, knives etc… strictly prohibited in detention.

The prosecutor recalled that previous excavations had already led to the discovery of bladed weapons

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ENVIRONMENT

NIGERIA – More than 200 dead in deadly floods in Mokwa

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More than 200 people were found dead after the sudden floods that hit the Central West of Nigeria on Thursday, May 29, 2025, announced the humanitarian coordinator of the state of Niger in a new report, Tuesday, June 3. Hundreds of victims are still missing.
The balance sheet is getting heavier. Trapped by sudden floods in west-central Niger, many people were still missing on Tuesday 3 June. The humanitarian coordinator of Niger state said that the death toll now exceeds 200, while hundreds of people are still missing.

“We have more than 200 bodies,” Ahmad Suleiman told Channels Television. “No one can say at the moment how many deaths there are in the state of Niger because we are still looking for other bodies,” he added.
The research continues
“We continue to search but sincerely, we cannot be sure of anything,” he added. Many victims were counted in Mokwa, the most affected agglomeration and a neighborhood of which was wiped out within hours Thursday by flood waters from the Niger River. Since then, volunteers and rescue teams have been combing the area under an overwhelming heat, sometimes finding bodies up to 10 kilometers away.

The coordinator’s announcement comes after the official toll remained stuck at 150 deaths, although some residents deplore the loss of more than a dozen family members.

Fifteen of the 36 states in Nigeria had been placed on flood alert a few days before the disaster. Climate change amplifies extreme weather events in Nigeria but for the people of Mokwa, the tragedy is also linked to human failures. In Mokwa, muddy waters swept away hundreds of houses in the town, including the lack of maintenance of the nozzles designed to evacuate floodwaters, which were clogged with debris on the day of the flood.

The death toll could exceed the 321 deaths from the floods that occurred in 34 of Nigeria’s 36 states in 2024. The Nigerian government claims to have provided aid, but on the spot, the inhabitants feel left to themselves and several families said they had received nothing.

Source: la-croix.com/ Photo credit: TV5

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