A meeting of African leaders was held in Senegal, to prepare for a "world conference" on racial bigotry later in the year. In his welcoming address, Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade said that in his opinion, racism against Africans in places like Europe was "marginal" compared with ethnic conflicts among Africans, that lack of African democratic institutions was a far more pressing problem than discrimination from abroad, and that demands for compensation for slavery and colonialism were "childish." Outraged by Wade's comments, citizens of the neighboring Ivory Coast retaliated by looting Senegalese-owned stores.

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