At least 15 people were killed as protesters clashed with police for a second day in Senegal after a Dakar court sentenced popular opposition leader Ousmane Sonko to two years in prison.
(Bloomberg) — At least 15 people were killed as protesters clashed with police for a second day in Senegal after a Dakar court sentenced popular opposition leader Ousmane Sonko to two years in prison.
Stores were looted and torched in some of the most violent protests since President Macky Sall came to power in 2012.
On Friday, the government deployed the army in an attempt to curb the violence. Soldiers could be seen along Dakar’s seaside embankment and outside French-owned Auchan supermarkets.
“There are demonstrations, but it’s being managed by the police forces and gendarmes with the military positioned in strategic spots,“ Interior Ministry spokesman Maham Ka told state broadcaster RTS.
Protesters have targeted French-owned businesses in the past. In March 2021, the arrest of Sonko on rape charges sparked mass protests that left at least 14 people dead.
At least nine people were killed on Thursday as Senegalese took to the streets after Sonko was sentenced for morally corrupting a youth. He was sentenced in absentia, which for the time being bars him from running in presidential elections next year.
The court’s 2021 acquittal of Sonko to many Senegalese confirmed their beliefs that the charges against the former tax inspector are politically motivated.
Sonko, 48, is considered the main challenger to whoever the ruling coalition picks as its candidate. Sall, 61, who’s set to step down in 2024, has said a constitutional amendment in 2016 allows him to extend his rule.
“We won’t back down until Sall gives up his third term bid and Sonko’s allowed to run,” said Moussa Ndeye, a 33-year-old driver from Dakar. “There’s been peaceful transitions of power recently in both Niger and Nigeria. We want the same here in Senegal.”
Senegal has long been hailed as a model of democracy in West Africa, a region known for military power grabs and aging leaders holding on to power. Elections have been mostly peaceful since independence from France in 1960. The vote in 2012 that saw Sall come to power on the back of protests against then-President Abdoulaye Wade’s attempt to win a third term was a rare exception.
France, the African Union and the regional Economic Community of West African States on Friday all called for an end to the violence and a solution to the crisis.
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