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Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko gave an interview to France 24 and RFI. Candidate for the 2024 presidential election, he believes that “all Senegalese have turned their backs on President” Macky Sall, sanctioning his “calamitous” governance. He regretted that the latter nevertheless managed to present the opposition as “opposed to Western interests”. “We have nothing once morest France,” he added, calling on Paris to “review its position” vis-à-vis the Senegalese opposition.
On RFI and France 24, Ousmane Sonko strongly denied the rape charges for which he was charged following a complaint filed in February 2021. Placed under judicial supervision in March 2021, he claims to be the victim of “a state plot” initiated by relatives of the Senegalese president. “There was never any question of rape and there will never be any question of rape concerning me,” repeated the opponent, who refused to submit to a DNA test.
Ousmane Sonko considered “unhealthy” the possibility of seeing Macky Sall run for a third term. He felt that the president would thus “spit” on the Constitution, which stipulates that no one can serve more than two successive terms at the top of the state.
For Ousmane Sonko, Macky Sall’s strategy consists in promoting himself on the international scene as the only one who can ensure stability, exploiting the “extremely disturbed regional context”, and presenting his opposition as “irresponsible” and “terrorist”.
Addressing thegrowing influence of the Russian Wagner group, at the expense of Francein several neighboring countries, such as Mali, Ousmane Sonko regretted seeing them celebrate “a logic of” replacement rather than sovereignty “: for the main Senegalese opponent, there is no question of “replacing a partnership that the we considered unfavorable by a new one who can be much more so”.
Regarding the legal file concerning Mr. Ousmane Sonko, the management of RFI would like to point out that its journalists, in Dakar as in Paris, have always taken care to cover this affair with the greatest rigor and with a constant concern for balance.