Senegal: violence after the conviction of the opponent Ousmane Sonko sentenced to two years

Violence erupted Thursday in different neighborhoods of Dakar after the sentencing of Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko, accused of rape, to two years in prison for "corruption of youth", a sentence that further compromises his candidacy for the presidential election of 2024.

Groups of young people attacked public property in several parts of the capital, burned tires and set up obstacles in the streets. Clashes pitted groups and security forces against each other with stones and tear gas.

Unrest has been reported on social media elsewhere in the country. Satire Mbaye, a presidential party official in Keur Massar, a suburb of Dakar, said the party's headquarters had been "ransacked." The highway leading to the airport was cut off by protesters. The new train serving the new city of Diamniadio from the capital has stopped running.

A conviction for "corruption of youth"

The violence follows a deliberation Thursday by a criminal chamber in Dakar against Ousmane Sonko, the fiercest opponent of President Macky Sall, accused of rape and death threats. The court convicted him of "corruption of youth", which consists of promoting the "debauchery" of a young person under the age of 21. Instead, it acquitted him of charges of rape and death threats.

The complainant, Adji Sarr, a former employee of the beauty salon where Ousmane Sonko was going to be massaged, was under 21 years old at the time of the facts she denounces. The court's decision provoked loud expressions of disapproval in the courtroom under heavy police protection, without it being clear whether they were due to sympathy for the complainant or for Ousmane Sonko.

Adji Sarr left the court without speaking. Threatened and insulted since the scandal broke, placed under police protection, she has always persisted in her accusations. She told the trial that Ousmane Sonko abused her five times between late 2020 and early 2021. She has never become the figure of a fight against violence against women, the issue being too politicized by the presidential election and society does not facilitate such a commitment.

He "can no longer be a candidate"

Ousmane Sonko has continued to deny the accusations and to cry out at the plot hatched by the power to remove him from the presidential election. The boss and witnesses disputed Adji Sarr's statements at trial. The owner of the Sweet Beauté salon, Ndèye Khady Ndiaye, was also sentenced to two years in prison for inciting debauchery, but acquitted of complicity in rape.

The decision seems in view of the electoral code to maintain the threat to the eligibility of Ousmane Sonko and his ability to compete in the presidential election next year. "Let all Senegalese know: Ousmane Sonko can no longer be a candidate," said a lawyer for Ousmane Sonko, Me Bamba Cissé.

At the time of the court decision, Ousmane Sonko, president of the Pastef-les Patriotes party and third in the 2019 presidential election, was presumed to be at home in Dakar, blocked since Sunday by a large police apparatus, "sequestered" in his words. Security forces rebuffed, including by force, any attempt by his lawyers or supporters to approach him.