His friend, Khadim Ba, was one of at least 23 people killed earlier this month in Senegal during the country’s deadliest clashes between police and protesters in decades, according to Amnesty International. Like Ba, several people were reported shot with live ammunition by men wearing civilian clothes who appeared to be fighting alongside the police, according to protesters and rights groups.
Such “nervis,” a French word for “thugs” that is used in Senegal to refer to gunmen for hire who are deployed to shut down protests, are allegedly responsible for numerous deaths during the days of clashes between supporters of political opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and police.
