Found guilty of breach of trust by the Diourbel court of summary jurisdiction last Tuesday, shepherd M. Sow was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay 20 million CFA francs in damages. His crime? He deceived a Mouride dignitary named Serigne Bara Mbacké.

According to the account in L'Observateur, which attended the trial, the marabout entrusted him in 2009 with a herd of 60 sheep, 7 cows, and 7 goats. As the marabout's trusted confidant, the newspaper reports, his role was to look after the livestock and ensure the birth of new offspring.

“Every year,” the daily newspaper reports, “the marabout sends his chamberlains or close associates to inspect the flock and assess its size. On January 3, 2026, the shepherd lists 33 sheep, 43 cows, and 36 goats. But what Serigne Bara Mbacké doesn’t know is that he’s the victim of a long-standing deception. In reality, the shepherd shows the marabout’s emissaries his neighbors’ enclosures, leading them to believe that it’s the flock entrusted to him.”

In reality, the Mouride dignitary had only four cows and four goats left. Mr. Sow admitted this in court. But he tried to exonerate himself by claiming that the missing livestock had been decimated by torrential rains. Unfortunately for him, he provided no evidence to support this claim.

Pointing to the defendant's "bad faith," the marabout's lawyer demanded the full application of the law, including a sentence of 20 million CFA francs in damages. The prosecutor, for his part, requested a two-year prison sentence, with six months to be served.

The court will sentence the defendant to two years in prison, one year of which will be served, and order him to pay 20 million to Serigne Bara Mbacké.