A leading Senegalese opposition figure has been released on bail pending a rape trial in a case that has sparked outrage over President Macky Sall’s government and led to the worst unrest in a decade.
Ousmane Sonko, a charismatic 46-year-old opposition leader and MP who finished third in the 2019 presidential election, was arrested last Wednesday after a beauty salon employee accused him of raping her.
He denies the allegations and his supporters believe it is the latest in a series of movements organized to prevent popular figures such as Sonko Sall’s government from running in the election.
Thousands of largely young people took to the streets in the past week, leaving at least eight dead in clashes between protesters and police and bringing parts of the capital, Dakar, to a standstill. According to many observers, protesters are widening their frustrations about unemployment, inequality and corruption in one of the most stable democracies in West Africa.
Senegalese MPs get controversial immunity from arrest, accusing them of politically motivated Sonko detention. Two other prominent opponents of Sall were earlier targeted by criminal charges that prevented them from being elected president in 2019.
Sonko, a former presidential candidate and government tax inspector, has galvanized many Senegalese people, especially young people. He became prominent in 2015 after releasing documents that he said exposed political corruption in Sall’s ruling ruling alliance for the Republic and criticized Senegal’s economic dependence and relationship with the former colonial power France.
Military tanks patrolled Dakar’s streets Monday morning in a show of force. Outside court groups of Sonko supporters hailed the verdict as a ‘partial victory’. Despite his release, protests called for by his Movement to Defend Democracy party (M2D) are expected to continue.
According to police, at least four people were killed, including a 20-year-old student, amid an aggressive response by security forces who fired live shots and tear gas.
Video footage posted on social media over the weekend showed a police vehicle chasing a crowd of protesters and groups of men carrying clubs attacking protesters. Some protesters were seen throwing stones and bottles at officers, and some looted shops in French property in an affluent part of Dakar.
According to Ousmane Diallo, a researcher at Amnesty International in Senegal, several protesters and supporters of the opposition were arrested in a worrying crackdown.
‘There are serious concerns about the excessive and deadly use of force by the security forces during … [the] protests, but also about arbitrary arrests of supporters of Ousmane Sonko in the weeks before, ”he said. “Opponents holding sticks and clubs were seen in many places and attacked protesters while the police watched,” he added.
Last Thursday, two independent TV stations were suspended for 72 hours by the media regulator, who accused them of reporting excessively on the protests in their coverage, a move Diallo said was “shocking to many people in Senegal,” a country that is proud of its respect for freedoms and freedoms, especially freedom of expression ”.
Social media users have reported restrictions on internet access from Senegalese networks. The use of Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and Telegram dropped last week, according to NetBlocks, an Internet observatory.
Reports on social media under the hashtag “FreeSenegal” have been trending in Nigeria, Ghana and other countries in a continent where young populations are increasingly vocal in their opposition to political elites accused of suppressing democracy and changing the constitution around their terms expand.
In 2010, Sall led mass protests when then-president Abdoulaye Wade elected a third term. But now many of Sonko’s supporters are increasingly fearing that the president, a key ally of France, is now also trying to expand his own government beyond his second term – a prospective leader in West Africa has increasingly embraced it.
Economic suffering caused in part by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic has caused misery. Markets and local industries such as tourism are depressed and many are struggling to find work.
A wake-up call of 21:00 packed Senegal’s bustling night economy and deepened resentment over the government. Sall maintains considerable popularity after overseeing years of high economic growth before the pandemic, but his government has faced increasing criticism due to a lack of progress on poverty and inequality, and import-friendly policies are seen as benefiting French corporate interests.
Some protesters looted and vandalized French shops and petrol stations in Senegal as significant anti-government and anti-French sentiment unraveled in the streets.
The unrest and deep discontent shocked the country. Sonko’s supporters have demanded three days of nationwide protests this week, though his release could help ease tensions.