2023-08-01 03:36:36
The political crisis is once again turning tragic in Senegal. Two people were killed during protests following the indictment and detention of opponent Ousmane Sonko, the 2024 presidential candidate.
The fiercest opponent of President Macky Sall, Ousmane Sonko was charged and imprisoned on Monday for various crimes, including the call for an insurrection which caused killings justifying the dissolution of his party. Invested at 49 as a candidate by his party, he thus sees the opening of a third legal procedure against him, which risks further compromising his participation in the presidential election of February 2024.
The Pastef in the sights of power
The Interior Ministry announced that “demonstrations” broke out on Monday afternoon in the southern city of Ziguinchor, whose mayor is Ousmane Sonko, where “two lifeless bodies” were discovered, without more details on the circumstances.
Less than two hours after the indictment of Ousmane Sonko, the Minister of the Interior Antoine Abdoulaye Félix Diome announced the dissolution of his party, the Pastef, justifying his decision by his “frequent” calls to “insurrectionary movements” which according to him, caused many deaths in March 2021 and June 2023 and led to “acts of ransacking and looting of public and private property”.
The “stability (of Senegal) is now compromised, because the people will never accept this ultimate forfeiture” of power against “the favorite” of the presidential election, said Sonko’s party. He also denounced imprisonment “under fallacious grounds” and said he was waiting for a “notification” of the “undemocratic” dissolution to attack it by “legal means”.
Sonko continues his hunger strike
The opponent was sentenced on June 1 to two years in prison in a morality case, a verdict which makes him ineligible, according to lawyers. His conviction caused the most serious disturbances for years in Senegal, which left sixteen dead according to the authorities, around thirty according to the opposition. “It’s a joke,” reacted Me Ciré Clédor Ly to the detention of his client. The opponent also continued his hunger strike on Monday, which began on Sunday, his lawyers said.
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