Charred tree branches, scattered stones and a burnt-out taxi bar one of the main axes of the Ouakam district in Dakar. In the air hovers a smell of tear gas that grips the throat and burns the eyes. Thursday 1er At the end of the day in June, young supporters of Ousmane Sonko, the main opponent of Senegalese President Macky Sall, continued to clash with the security forces. These violent clashes left nine dead in Dakar and Ziguinchor, a city in Casamance (south of the country) of which Ousmane Sonko is the mayor, announced in the middle of the night Antoine Félix Diome, the Minister of the Interior, in a statement on television. Senegalese national.
These young people, the base of Ousmane Sonko’s electorate, who has become popular with a nationalist, anti-system and anti-Western discourse, cried out in anger after their leader was sentenced to two years in prison for “youth corruption”. The opponent, who was tried in his absence, was on the other hand acquitted of the charges of death threats and rape, brought by Adji Sarr, a former employee of a massage parlour, who was 20 years old at the time of the events. she described, between December 2020 and February 2021.
“The arrest [d’Ousmane Sonko] can intervene at any time, without delay”, assured Ismaila Madior Fall, the Senegalese Minister of Justice. According to the latest information given by the Senegalese authorities, Ousmane Sonko was still confined to his home where he was forcibly brought back on Sunday while he was carrying out a great “freedom march” with his supporters from Ziguinchor to Dakar, to 500 kilometers further north. Thursday, a strong police force still prohibited him from leaving his home and prevented his relatives, his lawyers or members of his party from coming to see him.
” The battle has only begun “
“It’s an illegal sentence!” We will face Macky Sall and we will remain mobilized for the review of this illegal and unfair trial. The battle has only begun “, explained Thursday a sympathizer of Ousmane Sonko, while moving stones to block the avenue which passes in front of the university Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar.
“This verdict on command is the final stage of a plot hatched by Macky Sall and his henchmen”accused the national office of Mr. Sonko’s party, The Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (Pastef), in a statement released Thursday afternoon, calling “the Senegalese people” To ” go out in the street “ and asking the “forces of order and the army to get on his side”.
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