Eleven pilgrims died in road accidents in Senegal this week while travelling along with hundreds of thousands of others to an annual pilgrimage, emergency services said Friday.

The victims died between Wednesday and Friday, with the worst accident claiming seven lives in a village in the centre of Senegal, emergency services told AFP.

Every year, pilgrims from the Mouride brotherhood converge on the city of Touba to commemorate the exile to Gabon of the Islamic Sufi order's founder.

Sapa