Enraged Senegalese Kill 20 Mauritanians in Dakar

DAKAR, Senegal —  Senegalese angered by violence against their countrymen in neighboring Mauritania attacked Mauritanians in Dakar on Friday, killing at least 20 people, officials said.

Authorities in Senegal, in an order broadcast by state radio, declared a state of emergency in the capital and a curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., to be in effect for at least six days. Under the state of emergency, all public and private gatherings are banned.

The violence began this month in dispute over land near the border between the West African nations. Reports say more than 150 people have been killed.

Several thousand Senegalese assembled Friday around the hospital at Grand-Yoff on the outskirts of Dakar, where survivors of the violence in Mauritania were being treated after being flown home.

Police used tear gas to try to break up the mob, but the officials said that at least 20 Mauritanians were killed.

Among the 281 people being treated, some had their sex organs or limbs mutilated, and most of the corpses brought home had been decapitated, reporters said.

Word of the nature of the injuries enraged the crowd, which then went seeking Mauritanians, many of whose homes and shops had been burned or looted this week.

A few hundred Mauritanians were flown home to Nouakchott, the Mauritanian capital, after the earlier violence, but many others had been gathered at the Dakar fairgrounds to await repatriation. Many of the angry Senegalese headed to the fairgrounds in search of vengeance.