[QODLink]
In Pictures
In pictures: Senegal prepares for polling day
Photos capture the mood of capital city Dakar just days before the presidential election.
Azad Essa Last Modified: 24 Feb 2012 21:34

Dakar, Senegal - Just days before the country heads to the polls, the mood in the city remains ambivalent; there is a tension permeating the air, yet there is hope that the distrust and security concerns will come to pass.

Tension is high in Dakar, but the capital of this West African nation is hardly paralyzed by the wave of insecurity hovering over Sunday's presidential elections.

Ten people have reportedly been killed in election-related violence, though official statistics place the number at six, and the scale of tension is unprecedented for a country known for being a beacon of democracy in a region beset by instability, with neighbouring countries suffering coups and civil wars since gaining their independence from former colonial powers in the early 1960s.

Al Jazeera's Azad Essa captures the mood of the city with this series of photographs.
Source:
Al Jazeera
Topics in this article
People
Country
City
Featured on Al Jazeera
The story of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and its emergence into the political arena after decades of suppression.
People & Power goes undercover to reveal how 'voluntourism' could be fuelling the exploitation of Cambodian children.
Secular fanaticism must be exposed for its own hatred and xenophobia, and get over the old cliches of East and West.
Although media coverage has dwindled, Occupy cells are alive and well all over the United States - and beyond.