In his book "Africa at Heart," reviewed by Seneweb, former Senegalese President Macky Sall looks back on one of the most significant episodes of his term: the riots of March 2021. A moment he describes as an unprecedented attempt at "destruction of the state," orchestrated, according to him, by part of the political opposition.

"I deplore all the more that a climate of riots was established in 2021 by the opposition when violence had never been a means of overcoming political differences," writes Macky Sall. He recalls that before this crisis, political tensions in Senegal were always resolved "peacefully," thanks to a "fundamentally balanced" national temperament.

The former head of state, however, describes a "brutal eruption" of street violence, marked by targeted attacks against symbols of the Republic: ministries, public infrastructure, Senelec, Water, TER, and even the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) construction site. He also mentions the shocking scenes of students setting fire to the university before "celebrating this auto-da-fé."

Faced with this situation, Macky Sall fully assumes the firmness of the state's response. "Faced with this gratuitous violence, the state had to remain standing. I assumed it. Otherwise, Senegal would today be among the failed countries," he insisted in his book.

The former President goes further, referring to "massive foreign interference" involving, according to him, "far-left currents and radical Brotherhood movements" seeking to "destabilize Senegal and beyond." In hindsight, he believes that these actions were part of a plan aimed at "weakening the whole of West Africa."

While welcoming the democratic change resulting from the ballot box in 2024, Macky Sall concluded that he could not have accepted that a change of power would occur "through anarchy and insurrection."