Student protesters burn tyres ahead of Senegal vote

DAKAR, Feb 19 (Reuters) - University students blocked a main avenue in the Senegalese capital with boulders and burning tyres on Monday to protest at what they say is neglect by the government, days ahead of presidential elections.

President Abdoulaye Wade is widely expected to win a second mandate in the former French colony, the only country in West Africa not to have experienced a coup since independence, but where discontent among the country's youth is running high.

Wade, who is in his 80s, swept to power in 2000 promising jobs and investment in education.

Seven years on, Dakar's main university is chronically under-funded and unemployment is estimated at over 40 percent, a worrying statistic with half the population aged under 18.

"We haven't received our bursaries for 5 months and yet with the election campaign going on, the authorities are spending billions (of CFA francs)," said Ibrahima Niang, 23, an English student at the Cheikh Anta Diop University.

"We don't even have enough to pay for our meals. We've blocked the traffic to make our voices heard," he said, huddled with a group of students inside a campus building after setting up a barricade on the street outside.

Wade, an economic liberal, had massive support from unemployed youths hungry for change after four decades of socialist rule when he won the country's last elections, telling his supporters it was "necessary to work: work hard".

Cheikh Anta Diop has long been considered one of the best universities in West Africa but has become so overcrowded that undergraduates are forced to crane their necks through open windows or crouch in stairwells to hear their lectures.

"It is because of the disastrous policies of this government that we are in this situation. If they had managed things better we would not be here protesting now," said Felix Mohamedel Baudin, a 23-year old economics student.

BARCELONA OR DEATH

Many graduating from Cheikh Anta Diop say they have little hope of finding work at home even if they manage to complete their studies. For the majority of youths who do not receive a university education, the outlook is even less promising.

"Barcelona or the afterlife" has become the grim motto for tens of thousands of young Senegalese who have risked their lives emigrating illegally to Spain in recent years to find work, crossing open seas in flimsy wooden fishing boats.

Those who leave are often the most dynamic from their village or neighbourhood, sometimes chosen to make the voyage to Spain's Canary Islands by their own families in the hope that they will start sending back money.

The government says it is trying to create jobs, particularly in the services and agricultural industries, and that it has negotiated with Spain to increase the numbers of Senegalese workers who can go to Europe legally.

As part of a deal to help combat illegal migration, Madrid has promised to increase the number of work permits available to young Senegalese and recently issued the first of these.

But the pact also meant Senegalese migrants caught by the Spanish police could be repatriated, a move viewed as a betrayal by many Senegalese when nationals from neighbouring states with no such repatriation agreements are able to remain in Europe.

"I am not going to vote for Wade ... What's the point of voting anyway? They're all the same," said Yaya Sagna, a first-year law student, clutching a stone. (Additional reporting by Pascal Fletcher)