A number of videos posted on social media document a group of men digging up a man’s body, tying his remains with rope and dragging them on the ground, before burning them on a pyre[…]
A man explains to the camera in Wolof and then in French: "We caught a homosexual and we burned him"[…]
Other videos show a large crowd gathering in front of the cemetery of the Léona Niassène mosque, watching the scene. A number of these onlookers film[…]
Senegalese officials have not released the name of the victim, who they refer to by his initials, "CF". CF was in his 30s when he died and was interred by his family in the Léona Niassène cemetery on October 27. A mob dug up his body and burned it the very next day

In many of the videos of the event circulating online, you can hear people saying "goor-jigeen", which literally means "man-woman" in Wolof and is used to refer to gay men

The people who carried out this extreme violence were motivated by rumours that the man was gay[…]
Our team spoke to a member of the Idaho Committee[…]Our Observer wanted to remain anonymous[…]

To my knowledge, this is the first time that a body has been burned in public and that the scene was filmed and shared like this on social media. But exhumations are sadly not new in Senegal

There have been a number of documented cases where groups of men have dug up a body and then brought the remains to the home of the victim’s mother. The victims are people suspected of being gay or, even more commonly, people suspected of being HIV positive

Senegal’s state prosecutor Abasse Yaya Wane released a statement on Sunday stating that an investigation into the matter had been opened. Four people were arrested on Monday[…]Authorities have reported that a fifth person, thought to be an instigator, is on the run. All of the men were identified through the videos posted online

The religious leader of Léona Niassène mosque condemned the incident in a statement published on October 29