The Autonomous Union of Higher Education (SAES) spoke out on Tuesday, February 10, the day after the tragic death of student Abdoulaye Ba, enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine at Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar (UCAD). The tragedy reportedly occurred following a police raid on the campus, amidst ongoing tensions at the university.

In a statement released after an emergency meeting of its National Secretariat, the SAES expressed its profound dismay and offered its condolences to the family of the deceased, the university community, and the entire nation. But beyond the emotion, the tone was somber, accusatory, and imbued with strong indignation.

A death that revives painful memories

The union points out that this disappearance comes two years to the day after that of Alpha Yéro Tounkara at Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis, on February 9, 2024. For SAES, the death of Abdoulaye Ba is part of a long list of students who died during police interventions in Senegalese universities: Balla Gaye (2001), Bassirou Faye (2014), Mouhamadou Fallou Sène (2018), Alpha Yéro Tounkara and Prosper Clédor Senghor (2024).

All these tragedies, according to the union, reflect a worrying normalization of violence in the university environment.

"Disproportionate use of force"

The SAES (Student Union of Higher Education) condemns "in the strongest possible terms" what it calls the disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force by law enforcement, arguing that they overstepped the bounds of maintaining public order. According to the union, this intervention not only led to the student's death but also sparked widespread unrest across the country's public universities.

The union holds the government directly responsible, pointing to a recurring mismanagement of university crises.

A reminder of an ignored warning

The SAES points out that it had alerted the authorities as early as December 3, 2025. In a previous statement, it called on students to remain calm, urged law enforcement to exercise restraint, and asked the Ministry of Higher Education and the government to engage in a sincere dialogue with students, particularly on the sensitive issue of scholarships.

The union also insisted on strict adherence to Law 94-79 of November 7, 1994, concerning university freedoms and privileges, which governs the interventions of security forces on campuses.

Universities in structural crisis

Beyond the tragedy, the SAES highlights structural problems that it says it has been denouncing for years: uncontrolled massification of staff, insufficient budget allocations, shortage of teaching and research staff, educational and social infrastructures unfinished for more than a decade, and lack of serious evaluation of reforms, particularly the LMD system.

According to the union, these chronic malfunctions are the cause of the disruption to the academic calendar, which directly impacts the payment of scholarships and fuels student anger.

Request for a postponement of the stock market reform

In this explosive context, the SAES is asking the government to postpone the ongoing reform of scholarships, believing that no reform can succeed without consensus, transparency and an inclusive approach.

He calls for serious consultations on all the issues that undermine the functioning of public universities.

A call for truth and dialogue

The SAES demands a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding Abdoulaye Ba's death and that those responsible be held accountable. It calls for sanctions against the guilty parties, both in the interest of justice and to prevent such tragedies from recurring.

While welcoming the mediation efforts carried out on February 8 and 9 by the SAES-UCAD coordination to avoid escalation, the union reaffirms its willingness to participate in a permanent dialogue between the authorities and the students in order to restore peace and stability in the Senegalese university space.