Ihe calls for calm and 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, the capital and which raised fears of a conflagration in the event of arrest of opponent Ousmane Sonko, presidential candidate of 2024 sentenced to prison.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the violence and “urged 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”. For the newspaper Daily Walf, it could not be clearer that Senegal, whose democracy and stability are cited almost everywhere, is “turning into violence”.
READ ALSOSenegal: this Sonko who troubled the presidential election
Dangerous excitement
Indeed, Senegal, renowned as a rare island of stability in West Africa without being exempt from unrest in the pre-election period, experienced Thursday one of its worst days of protest in years with the death of nine people according to the Ministry of the Interior, following the sentencing of opponent Ousmane Sonko – who leads the African Patriots of Senegal party for work, ethics and fraternity (Pastef) – to two years in prison in a affair of manners.
Scattered clashes were reported in the capital on Friday. The tension remained high, in the uncertainty of the next day and the indecision on whether or not to arrest the fiercest opponent of current President Macky Sall.
According to several sources, including Agence France-Presse, the authorities 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 still bearing the traces 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,” Babacar Ndiaye, a 26-year-old student, told AFP. “But there is injustice,” he said, speaking of the conviction of Ousmane Sonko, also mayor of Ziguinchor (south), engaged for two years in a fierce standoff with power for his judicial survival. and politics.
Since then, around 30 civilians have been killed in unrest largely linked to the Sonko situation. The power and the camp of the opponent reject each other’s fault.
For the Senegalese newspaper, Investigationit is the verdict that “set fire to the powder” in several cities of the country, from Dakar to Ziguinchor via Mbour, Saint-Louis etc.
READ ALSOTierno Monénembo – “Senegal: the Sonko syndrome”
A reminder of the facts
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, Ousmane Sonko was on the other hand sentenced Thursday to two years in prison for having pushed to ” debauchery” this young woman under 21 years old.
The conviction seems, in view of the Electoral Code, to lead to the ineligibility of the declared candidate, an anti-system personality popular among young people and in modest backgrounds in search of hope and change in a trying economic context.
The latter has continued to deny the accusations by shouting at the machination of power to remove him from the presidential election, which the power refutes. He can now be arrested “at any time”, said Justice Minister Ismaïla Madior Fall. For his part, Ousmane 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 they arrest him, we will have to fear the worst,” said Yankouba Sané, a university employee. “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.
The press conference to announce the list of players summoned for the next matches of the national football team was replaced by a press release. The federation has postponed the weekend’s league games.
The world football star Sadio Mané and the Caliph General of Medina Baye, Serigne Mahi Ibrahim Niass, an eminent religious dignitary, but also civil society actors, such as Alioune Tine, the founder of the Think tank Afrikajom Center, all 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.
READ ALSOSenegal: Rape complaint against Sonko creates political storm