Nine people have died in clashes across Senegal, Senegalese Minister of the Interior Antoine Diome said yesterday, after a court sentenced opposition leader Ousmane Sonko to two years in jail.
A conviction for “corrupting youth” could disqualify Sonko, Senegalese President Macky Sall’s fiercest opponent, from running in next year’s presidential election.
The case has deeply divided Senegal, sparking sporadic, but deadly, violence that has battered the country’s image of stability.
Photo: AFP
After Thursday’s verdict, clashes broke out between police and demonstrators, buses were set alight in the capital, Dakar, and disturbances were reported elsewhere, including the city of Ziguinchor, where Sonko has been mayor since last year.
“We have noted with regret violence that has led to the destruction of public and private property and, unfortunately, nine deaths in Dakar and Ziguinchor,” Diome said on national television.
Two police officials said on condition of anonymity that at least three of the deaths occurred at demonstrations in Ziguinchor, and a police officer was stoned to death by demonstrators in the capital.
A former civil servant, Sonko rose to prominence in presidential elections in 2019, coming third after a campaign that took aim at Sall and the country’s ruling elite.
He portrays Sall as corrupt and a would-be dictator, while the president’s supporters call Sonko a rabble-rouser who has sown instability.
His initial arrest on rape charges in 2021 sparked several days of clashes that left at least 12 people dead.
Sonko, 48, did not attend the trial and was absent when Thursday’s judgement was handed down.
He was presumed to be at his Dakar home, where he had been blocked in by security forces after being detained on the weekend.
The court did not rule on whether he should be arrested.
However, after two years of confrontation with the authorities, Sonko, who leads the African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity Party, could be arrested “at any time,” Senegalese Minister of Justice Ismaila Madior Fall told reporters.
When the Dakar criminal court handed down its verdict, Sonko’s party called on Senegalese to “take to the streets.”
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