By Abimbola Ogunnaike
The death tolls in Senegal protest after court convicted opposition leader Ousmane Sonko have jumped to 15 on Saturday, 3 June, 2023, while no fewer than 500 people were arrested.
Sonko, a 48-year-old former tax inspector, was initially charged with rape but was on Thursday convicted on a lesser charge of morally “corrupting” a young woman and sentenced to two years in prison.
Sonko claims the charges against him were a bid by the government to torpedo his political career ahead of the presidential election next year, and with his conviction definitely, he will out of the running for the 2024 poll.
Sonko, who was tried in absentia for the allegation leveled against him., is yet to be taken into custody for his jail term, which is predicted to cause further tensions.
The politician is presumed to be at his Dakar home, where he has was blocked in by security forces since last weekend and he claims he is being “illegally held.”
Clashes between Sonko’s supporters and police broke out after the ruling, leading to 15 deaths over two days, according to government figures.
Shops and businesses were ransacked by the protesters and the army was deployed to the streets but scuffles erupted on Friday night in parts of the capital, Dakar, and in Ziguinchor.
Sonko’s ongoing legal woes have triggered violence in Senegal, typically a bastion of stability in West sub-regionAfrica, and foreign allies have called for peace.
The Minister of the Interior, Antoine Diome said disturbances were reported on Saturday in the suburbs of the capital Dakar, adding that several neighbourhoods that had experienced outbursts of violence on Thursday and Friday remained calm.
According to Diome, that there had been “a drop in intensity” of the demonstrations, adding that “about 500 arrests” had been made since the start of the protest movement.
The Minister, who said that the government suspected overseas involvement but declined to elaborate, added, “There is foreign influence and it is the country that is under attack.”
Diome accused protesters of trying to “destabilise the country,” just as he added that, “These are irresponsible people.”
They called for demonstrations. They called for public buildings to be burned. They called for the collapse of the state,” he stated.
The outspoken sharp-tongued and charismatic Sonko, has drawn a strong large followers, especially among Senegal’s youth, who love his barbs against a political elite he refers to as the “state mafia.”
He has been campaigning strongly against debt, poverty, food insecurity, under-funded health and education systems and corruption.
Sonko, a former tax inspector, who has two wives, sees himself as a devout Muslim and defender of traditional values, and has called for harsher penalties for same-sex relations.
Supporters of President Macky Sall, however, see him as a rabble-rouser who has poisoned political discourse and sown instability in the country.
Dakar residents interviewed by AFP said they feared the possible consequences of his arrest.
Forty six year old Fatou Ba, a businesswoman in the Dalifort neighbourhood of Dakar said, “I am really scared because we don’t know how this will all end. If they want peace; they won’t go and fetch Sonko.”
Another Dalifort resident, Matar Thione, 32, said he felt unsafe in his own country.
“If the protests continue, life is going to get even harder,” he said.
Source: AFP
