“The undercover police are everywhere,” warns Moma Diouf, lowering his voice. “They dress like civilians, pretending to sell coffee, striking up conversations about politics. The next thing you know, they’ve called officers nearby. You’re taken away, beaten and thrown in jail indefinitely.”
Speaking in the private upstairs room of a cafe in Médina, a district of Dakar, Senegal, Diouf, 30, is describing the fresh realities of life in a country that until recently was seen as a beacon for freedom in Africa’s increasingly turbulent Sahel region.
