The interior ministry reported that a petrol bomb was thrown at a bus in Dakar on Tuesday, leaving two persons dead and five others injured.

A gang of hooded youngsters boarded the vehicle and abused the bus driver while one lighted the bomb and threw it, according to bus driver Abdoulaye Diop, who was harmed in the attack.

The bus was being halted by a gathering of people as it was making its way from the suburbs to the center of Dakar.

According to Interior Minister Antoine Felix Abdoulaye Diome, the attackers also stole the passengers’ cash and cell phones.

Standing next to the burned-out bus, he stated, “We have been informed by the gendarmerie and the fire brigade that seven hooded individuals wrested control of a public transportation bus.”

In video posted on social media, Diop said that two people had died and five had been critically hurt.

He declared, “What a criminal act, what an inhuman act, to throw a Molotov cocktail in a bus carrying Senegalese people,” and vowed that those responsible would be apprehended.

Since 2021, there have been numerous instances of disturbance during the standoff between Ousmane Sonko and the police that have included riots, looting, and attacks on public transportation.

Company manager Mbaye Amar said that “demonstrators or bandits” were responsible for the petrol attack.

However, Diome referred to it as a “terrorist attack” and refrained from connecting it to the unrest that erupted in Senegal following Sonko’s indictment on a new set of charges and the dissolution of his party, which derailed his bid for the presidency.