Senegal: opponent Ousmane Sonko released, a climate still tense in Dakar

Tension persists in Senegal.

The main Senegalese opponent, Ousmane Sonko, whose arrest has caused the worst unrest for a decade in his country, on Monday asked the Senegalese to strengthen their "mobilization", while demanding that the "revolution" according to him underway be " peaceful ”.

"The revolution is already launched, nothing and nobody will be able to stop it", repeated in front of the press the deputy.

"We must keep this mobilization, it must be much more important even, but above all it must be peaceful," added the opponent, a few hours after being indicted in a case of alleged rape and put back in custody. freedom under judicial supervision, after five days in police custody.

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Wanting to ease tensions, Senegalese President Macky Sall in the evening called on his fellow citizens to "calm and serenity".

"All, together, let us silence our resentments and avoid the logic of the confrontation which leads to the worst", declared Macky Sall in a speech broadcast on television.

The Head of State, who at the same time announced a reduction in the curfew in force against Covid-19, called for justice to "take its course in complete independence".

A case of alleged rapes

As a reminder, a Senegalese judge indicted Monday Ousmane Sonko, expected to be one of the main contenders for the 2024 presidential election, in a case of alleged rape, but released him under judicial supervision.

" He goes back home.

He is free, ”said counsel in the evening, Étienne Ndione, after the presentation of his client to the judge.

The man is targeted by charges brought by an employee of a beauty salon where he was going to get a massage to, he said, relieve his back pain.

A personality with an anti-system profile, the deputy shouts at the plot hatched by the president himself to remove him from the next presidential election.

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After three days of clashes, looting and looting since his arrest on March 3, army tanks took up position in Dakar on Monday in anticipation of this high-risk day.

Unusual tensions in a country of 16 million inhabitants, usually considered an island of political stability.

A day of mobilization

Thousands of supporters of Ousmane Sonko converged in the afternoon on Place de la Nation, a traditional place for gatherings in the Senegalese capital.

The police used tear gas to disperse the demonstrators, often very young, who pelted them with stones, according to AFP correspondents.

#FreeSenegal

Place de la nation right now.

Senegalese say no to @Macky_Sall's dictatorship.

# 72hSenegalDebout the power remains with the people ✊🇸🇳 # Kebetu #Senegal #Dakar #snresistance #WhatsHappeningInSenegal pic.twitter.com/3QXarU90eX

- Djiby Ndiaye Serere 😍 (@djibysonedjibes) March 8, 2021

They responded to the call of the collective Movement for the Defense of Democracy (M2D), comprising the party of the opponent, opposition formations and protest organizations of civil society, which had called "to take to the streets en masse »From Monday and for three days.

The different parties, starting with the president, were in a hurry from all sides to find ways of de-escalation.

The head of state denied at the end of February the questioning of Ousmane Sonko as to the role he would have played in his troubles.