Thousands Pay Last Respects at Funeral of Senegal's Founding Father

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, December 30, 2001

Thousands Pay Last Respects at Funeral of Senegal's Founding Father

Five African heads of state and thousands of mourners paid last respects Saturday to Senegal's founding president, Leopold Sedar Senghor.

Five African heads of state and thousands of mourners paid last respects Saturday to Senegal's founding president, Leopold Sedar Senghor.

Senghor, a leading African statesman and poet who led Senegal to independence in 1960 and ruled the country for 20 years, died Dec. 20 at his home in France at the age of 95.

He was buried Saturday in a flag-draped coffin next to the Dakar grave of his only son, Philippe Maguillen Senghor, who died in a 1981 car wreck.

African heads of state including Equatorial Guinea's Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Mauritania's Maaouya Sid'Ahmed Ould Taya, Mali's Alpha Oumar Konare, Niger's Tandja Mamadou and Cape Verde's Pedro Pires attended the burial ceremony.

France was represented by Cooperation Minister Charles Josselin and Raymond Forni, president of the French National Assembly.

Senghor's body arrived Thursday from northwestern France, where the statesman had lived for most of the last 20 years since stepping down from the presidency voluntarily in 1980.

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