Classes are interrupted on Friday at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal. Violent clashes broke out the day before in the streets of the capital, after opponent Ousmane Sonko was sentenced to two years in prison. Nine people have died in the country.
In the aftermath of the demonstrations where nine people lost their lives, bus wrecks and charred cars testify, Friday, June 2, to the violence of the clashes between the demonstrators and the police not far from the Cheikh Anta Diop University from Dakar. The conviction, Thursday, June 1, of the Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko, presidential candidate of 2024 set fire to the powder.
>>> Senegal: what we know about the violence that occurred after the conviction of political opponent Ousmane Sonko
While the university has suspended its courses until further notice, students are leaving the campus in small groups, bags on their backs. Omar Diallo is a biology student, he returns to Fouta, a region more than 600 kilometers from Dakar. “We have problems because with the demonstrations, we burned all the classes”he said.
The young student must give up his lessons. “There is no more learning. The exams are boycotted since there is no more work at school. There are a lot of demonstrations. We prefer to go home.” The amphitheaters were set on fire, as well as some administrative buildings. Basketball under his arm, this sports student does not endorse the damage to infrastructure. “It’s really a diversion because we were in the second half. We were supposed to end the year in July and it’s a shame that we are being told to leave now when we could end the year.”
Prevent conflagration
Elsewhere in the city, private buildings, gas stations or shops were ransacked. The Senegalese authorities deployed armed forces in Dakar on Friday, which worries this student in the history department, who prefers to remain anonymous. “When you see the army outside, that amounts to saying that the situation has degenerated because it is the army that holds the force. It shows that it’s not right. ” Officially, nine people died Thursday according to the Ministry of the Interior. This brings back memories of the violent riots of March 2021 which left 14 dead at the very beginning of this legal case between Ousmane Sonko and the young employee of a massage parlor which accused him of rape.But the fight must continue according to Ousseynou Diop, a student who supports the opponent Ousmane Sonko and who asks that the trial be reviewed.
“It’s a political decision. It’s not based on the law.”
Ousseynou Diop, student who supports opponent Ousmane Sonkoat franceinfo
Social networks like YouTube, Whatsapp, Twitter or Facebook are still suspended, due to “the dissemination of hateful and subversive messages“According to Interior Minister Antoine Félix Diome. UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierres,”call for calm” and to the “detention” in the country.