Is democracy in Africa on its last legs?

Senegal's slide into chaos bodes badly in a year of key elections for the continent, the future of which lies with a younger generation that seems disillusioned by the apparent failures of elected leaders and stagnant economies

- Mark Townsend DAKAR

Djbril Camara remembers thinking that it was the wildest demonstration yet, the thunderclap of teargas almost constant. Then a shocking new sound: the crack of a live bullet. Camara scrambled to the roof of his block of flats.

Below, the protest had descended into pandemonium. People were shrieking as they ran. Plumes of teargas billowed across the Niarry Tally district of Dakar, Senegal's capital.

Four hundred metres east, out of Camara's sightline, a body lay in the street. Protesters kept attempting to retrieve it. But every time they got close, the police aimed another volley of tear gas. "The police wouldn't let them get near," said Camara, 32.

Downstairs, his older brother, Omar, was heading out to sunset prayers at the mosque. "The protest sounded crazier than previous ones - and that was saying something," said Omar.

At least, for once, their other brother, Abdoulaye, known to most people as the rapper Baba Khan, was not involved - or so they thought.

But as Omar left their home on Saturday 3 June last year, he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was his brother's boss from the henna parlour. "I turned to face him," said Omar. "He had a strange look ..."

For decades, Senegal has been lauded for its exceptionalism, a beacon of freedom in a turbulent region. Yet Khan's fate exposed its slide from bulwark of democracy to authoritarian regime. Last weekend, the world should have been watching Senegal stage a fair, competitive election. Instead, President Macky Sall's decision to cling to power by postponing voting without offering a new date has thrust the country into chaos.

Amid the uncertainty, critics accuse Sall of stealthily rolling out a police state. Others warn he may yet take his cue from neighbouring countries by calling on the military to back him up.