Senegal: the power deploys armed forces in Dakar the day after an outbreak of violence

2023-06-02 15:32:30

Nine people were killed Thursday in Senegal in the violence that has bursts after the sentencing to two years in prison of the opponent Ousmane Sonko, presidential candidate of 2024 and more than ever threatened with ineligibility. In response, armed forces were deployed in Dakar on Friday by the Senegalese authorities.

“While calling for calm and serenity of our fellow citizens, the State of Senegal has taken all measures to guarantee the safety of people and property,” Interior Minister Antoine Diome said overnight. of one of the deadliest days of political protest in years in the country.

deserted streets

Men wearing fatigues and war rifles were positioned at various points in Dakar, the usually teeming capital with streets now deserted and activity almost paralyzed, noted AFP journalists, who were unable to identify in their body to which they belong initially.

In fear of the looting, shops remained closed along entire streets still bearing the traces of the violence of the previous day. The university in particular has been the scene of protracted clashes and extensive destruction. Students have reported being told to leave campus and struggling to gather their belongings before finding transportation to take them elsewhere.

Restriction of access to social networks

Many Dakar residents have decided not to move out of fear for their safety or because they cannot find a means of transport. The government has admitted having restricted access to social networks such as Facebook, WhatsApp or Twitter to stop, according to him, “the dissemination of hateful and subversive messages”.

Several districts of Dakar, Casamance (south) and various cities were prey Thursday to a new outbreak caused by the situation of the opponent Ousmane Sonko, the fiercest opponent of President Macky Sall, engaged for two years in an arm of fierce battle with power for its judicial and political survival.

Before Thursday’s events, around 20 civilians had been killed since 2021 in unrest largely linked to Mr. Sonko’s situation. Power and Sonko’s camp blame each other.

Two years in prison

Ousmane Sonko, third in the 2019 presidential election and fiercest opponent of President Macky Sall, was sentenced on Thursday by a criminal chamber to two years in prison for “youth corruption”, an offense which consists of promoting “debauchery” of a young person under the age of 21. He was accused of rape and death threats against an employee of a beauty salon where he was going to have a massage between 2020 and 2021. The employee, Adji Sarr, was under 21 at the time of the events she denounces.

The court acquitted Sonko of charges of rape and death threats. The issue was as much criminal as political. The decision seems, in view of the electoral code, to lead to the ineligibility of Ousmane Sonko. The latter was absent at the delivery of the judgment, as well as during his trial. He is presumed blocked by the security forces at his home in the capital, “kidnapped” according to him.

But, after two years of a confrontation with the authorities which kept the country in suspense, he can now be arrested “at any time”, Justice Minister Ismaïla Madior Fall told journalists. Without waiting for such an arrest, the dreaded troubles before the deliberation broke out in Dakar and in several cities.

The riots broke out before the verdict was announced. (Guy Peterson/AFP) AFP or licensors

This Thursday, the University of Dakar took on the air of a battlefield. Groups of young people confronted with stones the police retaliating with tear gas. Several buses from the medical school, the history department and the country’s main school of journalism were set on fire and offices ransacked. Apart from these hotbeds of violence, the streets of Dakar have been deserted.

Clashes and looting of public property, shops and petrol stations have been reported in Dakar and its suburbs, but also in Ziguinchor (south), where several people were killed, in Mbour and Kaolack (west) or Saint- Louis (north).

Popular with young people

The relatively young age of Mr. Sonko, his sovereignist and Pan-Africanist discourse, his defense of religious values ​​and traditions, his diatribes against “the state mafia”, multinationals and the economic and political influence exercised according to him by the France, a former colonial power, earned it strong support among young people in search of prospects and hope in a difficult economic and social environment. Those under 20 represent half of the population.

Another factor of tension is the vagueness maintained by President Sall on his intention to seek or not a third mandate in 2024.

Other Conviction

Ousmane Sonko has continued to deny the accusations, shouting at the machination of power to remove him from the presidential election. “This verdict on command is the final stage of the plot hatched by Macky Sall and his henchmen”, reacted in a press release the party of Sonko, Pastef, who called on the Senegalese to “take to the streets” and the forces of l order to join them.

Ousmane Sonko’s eligibility is already compromised by a recent six-month suspended prison sentence for defamation against a minister. “Let all Senegalese know it: Ousmane Sonko can no longer be a candidate,” said one of his advisers, Bamba Cissé. Since February 2021, when the case of alleged rapes hit the headlines, Sonko has been engaged in a standoff with power for his judicial and political survival.