(Dakar) Calls for an end to the violence followed one another on Friday in Senegal and abroad after an outburst which prompted the authorities to deploy the army in Dakar, and which raised fears of a conflagration in the event of the arrest of the opponent Ousmane Sonko, presidential candidate of 2024, sentenced to prison.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemns the violence and “urges all actors to […] restraint,” a spokesperson said. Similar language from France, with strong relations with Senegal and “extremely concerned”: Paris calls “to stop the violence and to resolve this crisis, while respecting Senegal’s long democratic tradition”.
The Community of West African States (ECOWAS) expressed its “concern” and called on all parties to “defend the country’s laudable reputation as a bastion of peace and stability”.
Senegal, renowned as a rare island of stability in West Africa, without being exempt from unrest in the pre-election period, experienced one of its worst days of protest in years on Thursday with the death of nine people according to the ministry. inside. This violence followed the conviction of Ousmane Sonko to two years in prison in a sex scandal.
10e dead
Scattered clashes were again reported on Friday in the capital and in Casamance. Clashes also took place in Cap Skirring, a seaside resort in Casamance, resulting in a tenth death during the attack on a gendarmerie barracks by demonstrators, the government spokesman told TFM television.
“These are difficult times for the Senegalese nation, which we will overcome,” said Abdou Karim Fofana. “It is not a popular demonstration with political demands”, he said, but rather “acts of vandalism and banditry” on the part of “criminals”.
PHOTO ZOHRA BENSEMRA, REUTERS
Protesters throw projectiles at police in Dakar.
Tension remained high throughout the day, in uncertainty over the arrest of President Macky Sall’s fiercest opponent.
The authorities have deployed soldiers in fatigues and weapons of war in Dakar, the almost paralyzed capital, with in particular two armored vehicles on the Place de l’Indépendance, a five-minute walk from the presidential palace.
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”.
In fear of the looting, shops remained closed along entire streets that still bore the marks of the violence of the previous day.
At the university, the scene of protracted clashes and extensive destruction on Thursday, students were told to leave and many walked off campus.
“We did not expect that, political affairs should not concern us,” assured Babacar Ndiaye, a 26-year-old student. “But there is injustice,” he said, speaking of the conviction of Mr. Sonko, who has been engaged for two years in a fierce standoff with power for his judicial and political survival.
” Fear the worst ”
Since then, around 30 civilians have been killed in unrest largely linked to Mr. Sonko’s situation. The power and the camp of the opponent reject each other’s fault.
PHOTO LEO CORREA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Carcasses of burned cars were visible on Friday in front of the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar.
Acquitted Thursday of the charges of rape and death threats against an employee of a beauty salon where he was going to have a massage between 2020 and 2021, Mr. Sonko was on the other hand sentenced Thursday to two years in prison for having pushed to the “debauchery” this young woman under 21 years old.
The conviction seems, in view of the electoral code, to lead to the ineligibility of Mr. Sonko, an anti-system personality popular among young people and in modest backgrounds in search of hope and change in a difficult economic context.
Mr. Sonko has constantly denied the accusations, denouncing a plot to exclude him from the presidential election, which the power refutes.
Mr. Sonko can now be arrested “at any time”, said Minister of Justice Ismaïla Madior Fall. Mr. Sonko is blocked, “kidnapped” he says, at his home in the capital by security forces who forcibly prevent anyone from approaching him.
The prospect of his arrest alarms Dakar residents interviewed by AFP.
“If there is one person who will never go to prison in Senegal, it is Ousmane Sonko. If they refer him, they will make the situation worse,” said Alioune Diop, a 46-year-old trader.
World soccer star Sadio Mané and Caliph General of Medina Baye Serigne Mahi Ibrahim Niass, an eminent religious dignitary, called for peace.
The security response of the authorities drew criticism from them. Amnesty International urged them to stop “arbitrary arrests” and lift restrictions on access to social media. “Socio-political violence should not be a pretext for restricting the right to inform,” said the NGO Reporters Without Borders.