2023-05-30 05:35:00
The situation is tense once more in Dakar. Young Senegalese clashed with the police on Monday, May 29, in neighborhoods of the capital of Senegalnear the home ofOusmane Sonko.
The opponent, engaged for two years in a standoff with power, has remained silent since he was brought back by force to the capital by the gendarmes the day before.
These groups of young people attacked with stones the security forces deployed in large numbers around Keur Gorgui, where Ousmane Sonko lives, AFP journalists noted. They also burned tires on one of the main axes of the capital and set up makeshift roadblocks in adjacent streets.
The security forces responded by firing an abundance of tear gas. They blocked the streets giving access to the home of Ousmane Sonko. The latter is in a state of “sequestration”, his party’s spokesman, Ousseynou Ly, told AFP.
Vehicles were also set on fire near the home of the former sports minister and current chief of staff to the president Macky SallMatar Bâ, local media reported.
Ousmane Sonko forcibly brought home
Usually very present on social networksOusmane Sonko has not spoken since the gendarmes abruptly put an end to his return march to Dakar on Sunday in the south of the country and forcibly brought him home.
His silence gave rise to a flood of speculation regarding the possibility of a placement under house arrest. No power official has spoken regarding his status.
“The restrictions on the freedoms to come and go imposed on Ousmane Sonko without any act being notified to him are illegal and must end,” wrote Amnesty International on social networks.
Risk of tension with a verdict expected on Thursday
Ousmane Sonko, declared presidential candidate in 2024 and threatened with ineligibility, has been since 2021 the main character of a political and judicial soap opera which regularly puts Dakar under tension.
These tensions threaten to increase further as the verdict to be delivered on Thursday by a criminal chamber in a trial once morest him for rape.
Ousmane Sonko, third in the presidential election in 2019, risks losing his eligibility. He refused to appear, crying out for the conspiracy of power to remove him from the presidential election.
The mobilization of his supporters has regularly given rise to incidents and unrest since the start of the case in 2021. That year, his arrest in Dakar, as he went in procession to the summons of a judge , had contributed to triggering several days of riots which had left at least ten dead.
With AFP
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