The leader of Senegal's powerful Mouride Muslim brotherhood has died, followers said on Saturday, throwing into mourning a movement that holds huge influence and whose trade networks span the globe.
The brotherhood is the biggest centre of religious, economic and political influence in the mainly Muslim country, and counts octogenarian President Abdoulaye Wade among its followers.
Caliph Serigne Saliou Mbacke died on Friday in Senegal's holiest city Touba - known to some as "little Mecca" - and was buried overnight, Senegalese Mines Minister Madicke Niang said. "Serigne Saliou's calling back to God is a huge loss for me, for Senegal and for the entire Muslim community," Niang, a close associate and himself a "talibe" or disciple, told Reuters.
At 92, Saliou was the last surviving son of Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba, who founded the Sufi Islamic brotherhood in 1883. Mouride followers tipped Bamba's eldest grandson, Serigne Bara Falilou Mbacke, to become the movement's sixth caliph.