The head of the influential Mouride brotherhood of Muslims in West Africa has died, Senegalese media reported on Wednesday.
Around 95 percent of Senegal’s population is Muslim and most men join Sufi brotherhoods that combine Islam with distinctive local beliefs.
Serigne Sidy Moctar Mbacke, who was 92 or 93 when he passed away on Tuesday, was the grandson of the founder of the brotherhood, Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacke, and became its seventh caliph in 2010.
He was buried overnight in the holy city of Touba and will be succeeded by another grandson of Bamba, Serigne Mountakha Bassirou Mbacke, the official APS news agency reported.
President Macky Sall was due in Touba to offer his condolences, Le Soleil newspaper reported, in a sign of the Mourides’ powerful presence in Senegalese public life.
