Authorities Senegalese promised to “Restore order” after scenes of urban guerrilla warfare, which officially killed four people, between the police and young people demanding the release of the opponent Ousmane Sonko, whose arrest released an accumulated exasperation at the harshness of living conditions.
On Friday evening, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said “Very concerned” and called “To avoid an escalation”.
Island of sensitivity
Tensions, sensitive for two days in a country usually considered as an island of stability in Africa West, intensified with no apparent prospect of appeasement, the justice system having kept Mr. Sonko in police custody.
Several districts of Dakar and towns in the interior have experienced clashes of an unknown extent for several years, although the police response seems to be limited mainly to riot control.
“The government regrets the loss of four human lives”, said live on television Friday evening the Minister of the Interior, Antoine Félix Abdoulaye Diome, while the toll was until then of a young person killed Thursday in the south of the country.
Mr. Diome accused Ousmane Sonko of being responsible for this violence by having “Launched calls for violence” and to “Insurrection”. The minister condemned “Acts of a terrorist nature” and appealed “Calm, serenity and appeasement”.
Vaccination campaign in progress
Thanks to the current vaccination campaign, he also mentioned the “Prospect of reducing the curfew”, which worsens since January the often already precarious situation of many Senegalese.
In Dakar, the battle left after the fact the startling spectacle of streets emptied of people and vehicles, to the very outskirts of places of power, and littered with projectiles of all kinds, between the stores all closed.
In the popular district of the Medina, groups of young people chanting “Free Sonko!” »Harassed by throwing stones the very many police officers, in the clouds of tear gas and the blasts of stun grenades.
The same incidents happened a little further away near the Place de la Nation. Armored vehicles had been positioned near the presidency and its accesses cordoned off.
Looting
In Mbao, in the outer suburbs, looters were seen coming out with their arms laden with goods from an Auchan supermarket, of which at least 14 stores were attacked and 10 “ looted “, According to the management of the French group.
The arrest, Wednesday, of Mr. Sonko, third in the 2019 presidential election and expected to be one of the main competitors of that of 2024, angered his supporters, but also, say many Senegalese, carried to its height the frustrations with living conditions since the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the crowd, many expressed their resentment against President Macky Sall.
“Protests must remain peaceful and security and police forces must […] allow these demonstrators to express their opinion and will ”, claimed the spokesperson for Mr. Guterres, Stéphane Dujarric.
“Political liquidation”
On Thursday evening, demonstrators attacked the premises of the daily Le Soleil and the radio RFM, deemed close to power. Many French brands have been attacked, France being readily seen as supporting President Sall. French schools in the country have closed, as has the Air France agency.
Ousmane Sonko’s custody is due to end on Sunday. He will be presented to the judge again on Monday, according to his lawyers.
Mr. Sonko was officially arrested for disturbing public order, as he was marching in a procession to the court where he was summoned to respond to charges of rape brought against him by an employee of a beauty salon in which he was going to get a massage, he said, to relieve his back pain.
Mr. Sonko, who refutes these accusations, is the subject of an “attempted liquidation for the purpose of eliminating a political opponent”, denounced one of his lawyers, Abdoulaye Tall.
“Loop” dissemination of images of violence
A personality with an anti-system profile, the deputy shouts at the plot hatched by President Sall to remove him from the next presidential election. Mr Sall denied this at the end of February, but has since remained silent on the matter.
Restrictions on social networks and messaging applications, affecting the sharing of photos and videos, have been noted.
The authorities also suspended Thursday two TV channels guilty according to them of broadcasting ” endlessly “ images of violence.
“The Senegalese authorities must immediately stop the arbitrary arrests of opponents and activists, respect the freedom of peaceful assembly and the freedom of expression”, a demandé Amnesty International.
Reporters Without Borders condemned a “Unprecedented wave of press freedom violations in recent years in this West African country”.
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