Rufisque

It was not immediately clear what caused the building to collapse, or how many people were inside when the disaster happened on Wednesday morning in the Dakar suburb of Rufisque.

A ride was easy to find, with dozens of horse-drawn buggies lined up near the market, which was in Rufisque, a picturesque suburb of Dakar known for its colonial architecture.

But in the suburb of Rufisque, many people defend them as part of Senegal’s cultural identity.

“The horse is a sacred animal in our cities,” said Sidy Mbaye, the secretary general of Rufisque, which has hundreds of working horse-drawn carts and no plans to ban them.

The protests spread from the downtown core of the capital to numerous neighborhoods including HLM, Parcelles, Castor and Rufisque.