Clashes between young people and police left two dead on Friday June 17 in Dakar and in southern Senegal, where the verbal escalation of recent weeks between power and opposition has turned into the dreaded confrontation a month and a half before the legislative elections.
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Three opposition figures were arrested, Pastef party spokesman Ousseynou Ly said.
Opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and Dakar mayor Barthélémy Dias, another ardent critic of President Macky Sall, were prevented from leaving their homes by security forces, he said.
Different neighborhoods of the capital were the scene of clashes between young people throwing stones and police keeping them at a distance with tear gas or dispersing them with stun grenades in the smoke of burning tires.
In Casamance (south), the opposition accused the security forces of firing live ammunition.
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In Dakar, a young man or woman, according to the sources, died when a projectile set fire to a room where he or she was, said a Red Cross official on condition of anonymity.
The press and the opposition reported a second death in Bignona, Casamance.
Many Senegalese feared this rise in tensions since the authorities had banned the opposition on Wednesday from demonstrating this Friday afternoon.
The opposition intended to protest against the invalidation of a national list of candidates for the legislative elections of July 31.
She had warned that she would override the ban.
