nine dead in unrest after the conviction of an opponent of the president

Nine people were killed Thursday, June 1 in Senegal, in violence that broke out after the two-year prison sentence of opponent Ousmane Sonko, presidential candidate of 2024.We noted with regret violence that led to the destruction of public and private property and, unfortunately, nine deaths in Dakar and Ziguinchor.”Senegalese Interior Minister Antoine Diome lamented in a short message broadcast on national television.

Ousmane Sonko, the fiercest opponent of President Macky Sall, was sentenced by a criminal chamber to two years in prison for “youth corruption”an offense which consists in favoring the “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 opponent denies these accusations and denounces a plot 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 Ousmane Sonko, Pastef, which also called on the Senegalese to “go out in the street” and law enforcement to join them.