Political-judicial events between 2021 and 2024: an investigation identifies 76 deaths and more than 200 presumed victims (Prosecutor) October 2, 2026
The Prosecutor’s Office of the Dakar High Court announced the opening of an investigation into alleged acts of torture, inhuman, cruel or degrading treatment, as well as other offenses likely to be classified as crimes against humanity between 2021 and 2024.
According to a press release from the public prosecutor, the first investigations made it possible to provisionally count 76 dead people and more than 200 presumed victims.
The investigation follows two correspondences, numbers 559/MJ of July 28, 2025 and 0260/PGDK of July 30, 2025, by which the prosecution was seized to investigate facts occurring between 2021 and 2024. On August 4, 2025, the squadron leader commanding the Research Section of the National Gendarmerie of Dakar was seized of this effect.
Carried out between October 2025 and September 2026, the first investigations, based on available documents, made it possible to provisionally identify 76 deceased people, including 41 in the Dakar region, as well as more than 200 other alleged victims of acts of torture or inhuman, cruel or degrading treatment.
Five people arrested
The interviews of victims and witnesses, as well as the exploitation of medical procedures, revealed indications of assassinations, murders, persecutions and acts of torture or other inhuman, cruel or degrading treatment, likely to constitute crimes against humanity.
Investigations led to the arrest of five people. Four are suspected of having participated in acts of torture carried out on Pape Abdoulaye Touré. The fifth is implicated in the death of Mamadou Ndoye, whom the press release presents as having been deliberately struck to death by a police vehicle in Bargny.
On September 23, 2026, the five people were indicted for crimes against humanity, in particular for acts of torture and murder, by the joint investigating judges. At the end of this procedure, two of them were placed under arrest warrant, while the others were subject to judicial control measures or house arrest with electronic surveillance, according to the terms specified in the press release.
The prosecution appeals the order
On September 28, 2026, the public prosecutor, who had requested the placement under arrest warrant of all the accused, appealed the order made by the investigating judges.
The press release also indicates that the investigating magistrates were invited to establish judicial delegations, to formulate the necessary requests for assistance, to issue letters rogatory and to carry out other investigative acts useful for the manifestation of the truth.
The prosecution finally specifies that other legal proceedings may be opened before the competent courts, depending on the levels of responsibility that the investigation and investigation will make it possible to establish.
Investigations are therefore continuing in order to determine individual responsibilities in the facts examined.
