Ousmane Sonko and Sudanese soldiers
Humanity is counting down the last hours of the year 2023, which will soon be a thing of the past. But, a past whose repercussions will undoubtedly continue to impact the future of many African countries. The continent has been regularly marked by major events throughout this year. A succession of events including Afrik.com takes stock through this series of articles. The first issue of the series returns to the war in Sudan and the Sonko affairs in Senegal.
We cannot take stock of the year 2023 in Africa without talking about the situation in Sudan, torn apart by a deadly conflict for several months, or without looking at the country of Teranga shaken by strong tensions against a backdrop of a political-judicial saga featuring Macky Sall’s number 1 opponent, Ousmana Sonko.
The appalling Sudanese fratricidal war
The tense situation that prevailed in Sudan since the fall of General Omar al-Bashir completely deteriorated on April 15, 2023. This day marks the start of the war between the army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the FSR (Rapid Support Forces) of General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, also vice-president of the Transitional Sovereign Council. This conflict is the result of disagreements between the two generals after the coup d’état of October 25, 2021, date on which Abdel Fattah al-Burhan – in agreement with Mohamed Hamadan Dagalo – imposed exceptional measures, including the state of emergency which will not be lifted until May 29, 2022.
These disagreements between the army and the Rapid Support Forces mainly concern the reform of military security and the integration of the RSF paramilitaries into the regular army. But in reality, it is a power struggle between the two generals that it is about. Initially, the capital, Khartoum and the town of Bahri were the main centers of the conflict which subsequently spread over a large part of the territory.
A conflict with disastrous consequences
Several ineffective ceasefires have been signed in this conflict which is nothing other than a confrontation between two putschist generals each seeking to control power. And for almost nine months, the war has been tearing the country apart, with already more than 12,000 dead and 7.1 million displaced, more than 1.2 million of whom have fled to neighboring countries such as South Sudan, Chad, Egypt and the ‘Ethiopia. According to UNICEF, this conflict has caused some 19 million Sudanese children to drop out of school. More than 14 million children are in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the same institution.
Not to mention that 3.5 million children have had to flee their homes because of the fighting. Which makes the war in Sudan one of the worst child displacement crises in the world. Hospitals are attacked, further weakening a health system that is exhausted by the incessant influx of injured people. The humanitarian situation is dire, with shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel. According to the World Food Program, more than $13 million in food aid intended for the country has been destroyed since the fighting began.
In this month of December, it appears that the RSF have taken a clear advantage over the army, since they control almost 90% of the Sudanese capital, four of the five major capitals of Darfur. The war in Sudan is the second major conflict in this region after Ethiopia, in less than a year. Since the Tigray war only ended in November 2022, five months before the outbreak of the Sudanese conflict. In recent days, the belligerents are moving towards negotiations during which the two rival generals could discuss face-to-face.
Senegal vibrated to the rhythm of business Sonko
For several months, Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko has occupied national news in Senegal. It all started in 2021 with a case of an alleged rape of an employee of a massage parlor named Adji Sarr. Thus began a political-judicial saga which will keep Senegal in suspense for several months after a certain lull between March 2021 and February 2023. On February 16, 2023, Ousmane Sonko had to respond to other accusations, this time made against him by the Senegalese Minister of Tourism, Mame Mbaye Niang: defamation, public insult, forgery and use of forgery. In November 2022, the opponent accused the minister of embezzlement when he was in the Community Agricultural Estates Program (Prodac). The trial was postponed until March 16, but clashes pitted supporters of the Pastef leader against the police: use of tear gas versus stone throwing.
Ousmane Sonko sentenced in the Mame Mbaye Niang affair
Refusing to follow a route imposed by the police to reach his home, Ousmane Sonko was forcibly removed from his vehicle through the broken windows and driven military hand in his home. A few days later, the hospitalized opponent accused, in a video recording, President Macky Sall of attempted assassination against him. He states that he was sprayed, when the police removed him from his vehicle, with “a liquid that was extremely harmful to his health”. And calls on the Senegalese population for a general strike and civil disobedience.
On March 30, 2023, the verdict fell in this case: Ousmane Sonko received a two-month suspended prison sentence and must pay a fine of 200 million CFA francs to his accuser. A verdict which, however, does not satisfy Mame Mbaye Niang’s lawyers who will appeal. On Monday May 8, 2023, the new Corsican verdict was the first. Two, the suspended prison sentence increases to six months with the same fine. For Ousmane Sonko and a good part of the opposition, this trial was only a pretext to prevent a serious candidate from running for the supreme office in February 2024.
Senegal on fire and blood because of the Adji Sarr affair
Just a few days after the verdict in the trial between Ousmane Sonko and the Minister of Tourism, the leader of Pastef had to answer for the Adji Sarr affair. This new trial was to resume on May 16, 2023. Even before its opening, clashes broke out in Dakar and Ziguinchor, a city whose mayor is none other than Ousmane Sonko himself. These clashes of May 14 left one police officer dead – the deceased was mowed down by a police armored vehicle – and several injured among the demonstrators.
At the end of the trial which was held on May 23, the prosecutor requested a 10-year prison sentence against Ousmane Sonko. The latter, then in Ziguinchor, decided to march on Dakar at the head of a “freedom caravan”, from May 26, 2023. A real test of popularity for Ousmane Sonko, this caravan was also the scene of clashes between the police and the opposition’s activists with injuries and even deaths on the clock. So much so that the gendarmerie had to put an end to the caravan by arresting Ousmane Sonko on May 28, near the village of Thiaco, in the Koungheul department, and forcibly escorting him to his home in Dakar.
Prosecuted for “corruption of youth”
A few days later, the court verdict fell in the trial between the leader of Pastef and Adji Sarr. The opponent receives two years in prison and will have to pay 20 million CFA francs to the ex-masseuse. The charge against him is that of “corruption of youth”. Charges of rape and death threats were dropped. Everything suggests that it was necessary to condemn at all costs a very popular candidate who risks upsetting Macky Sall’s plans for February 2024.
This conviction throws part of the Senegalese population onto the streets. Violent demonstrations shake the country with several deaths and significant material damage. On the single day of Thursday June 1, 2023, nine Senegalese lost their lives. Stores like Auchan are attacked. Senegal found itself in turmoil.
The incarcerated opponent ends up submitting his candidacy
The government makes arrests and restricts access to social networks. But Ousmane Sonko is not arrested. He will be just a few days after the blockade around his house was lifted, following an incident with a gendarme. Indicted the day after his arrest, he was placed under arrest two days later (July 21, 2023) and his party dissolved. Ousmane Sonko thus suffered his third conviction in the year 2023 alone.
His hunger strike which endangered his state of health, the numerous demonstrations organized in the country by his supporters will not change anything in his status as a prisoner. On the contrary, on August 3, 2023, he was removed from the electoral rolls. This made him ineligible and therefore invalidated his candidacy, already undermined by two previous convictions. But, on October 12, 2023, the Ziguinchor court declared the cancellation of this radiation, before the Supreme Court overturned this decision. On December 14, 2023, Ousmane Sonko was put back in the saddle by the Dakar high court. And can then file on the edge his candidacy to participate in an election in which Macky Sall will not participate. After months of unnecessary suspense which maintained tension in Senegal.
2023-12-31 17:42:28
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