2023-06-02 15:10:57
The Senegalese Minister of the Interior, Antoine Félix Diome, announced the registration of nine deaths as a result of the violence that broke out after the sentence to two years in prison of the opposition leader Ousmae Sonko. The army patrolled the streets of the capital on Friday.
“We noted with regret the violence that led to the destruction of public and private property and unfortunately to the death of nine people in Dakar and Ziguinchor”, declared the minister on national television.
Following Sonko’s trial, sentenced to two years in prison for corruption of minors, the Senegalese streets plunged into a wave of protests with burning tires, demonstrators throwing stones at police forces and looting shops and public buildings.
These acts of violence took place in several neighborhoods of the capital of Dakar, such as Medina, Ngor, Ouakam and Yoff. But still, other cities like in the south of the country in Ziguinchor, where the opponent resides and equally in the north, in Saint-Louis.
According to the Senegalese Electoral Code, Sonko’s conviction leaves his candidacy out of the next presidential elections scheduled for February 2024.
An environment, therefore, critical that could even come to degrade in the coming days. Ousmane Sonko, on the other hand, has been under house arrest since Sunday, surrounded by police forces.
The army controls the main axes of the capital, Dakar, with a record of little activity in the city’s streets this Friday, June 2nd.
Ousmane Sonko is the main opponent of the regime. He was again convicted, this time on Thursday in a case of inciting the perversion of a minor, leaving him further and further away from next year’s presidential elections.
Ahmed Kébé, a Portuguese teacher in Dakar, admitted to Miguel Martins that the situation is “very worrying”.
By Inês Rodrigues
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