Unrest Grows in Senegal as Opposition Intensifies Protests

DAKAR (Capital Markets in Africa) — Days of protests in Senegal that were triggered by the main opposition leader’s arrest showed no signs of abating, with rights group Amnesty International putting the death toll in violent clashes between police and demonstrators at eight.

Ousmane Sonko, who came third in 2019 presidential elections, was released on bail Monday as he awaits trial on charges of rape. Sonko, 46, was accused of the assault last month by a beauty
salon employee and was summoned to court after his parliamentary immunity was revoked.

A Senegalese court cleared the way Monday for opposition leader Ousmane Sonko to be released pending his rape trial in a case that already has sparked deadly protests. Leanne de Bassompierre explains why tensions have grown. 

The opposition Movement to Defend Democracy coalition, which called three days of nationwide protest starting from Monday, said the charges were politically motivated. It called on the Senegalese people “to pursue its mobilization and peaceful struggle by using all of its constitutional rights to reject the dictatorship of Macky Sall,” the country’s president.

Hundreds of demonstrators erected burning barricades in the streets and hurled stones and bricks at the police clad in riot gear, who fended off the missiles with shields.
Interior Minister Antoine Felix Diome accused the protesters of insurrection, and the Education Ministry ordered the closure of all schools until March 15 because of the threat of further violence.

Discontent with Sall’s rule has been fueled by his close ties to former colonial power, France, with French businesses including Auchan Holdings SA supermarkets and Total SE filling stations targeted in recent days.

The Economic Community of West African States, a regional bloc, has condemned the violence and urged the authorities to take measures to ease tensions. Amnesty called on the government to ensure all deaths were impartially investigated and that citizens be allowed to safely exercise their right to peaceful assembly within the bounds of the law.

While Sonko’s conditional release could alleviate some of the civil unrest, it may have come too late to stop the spread of anti-government sentiment, said Eric Humphery-Smith, an analyst at Verisk Maplecroft in London.

“For a country used to peaceful protest, reducing tensions will be key if the government wishes to calm bondholders and investors in major energy projects,” he said. “The government’s inconsistent approach to the protests, ranging from zero-tolerance use of force by security forces to them standing down entirely, is proving to be self-defeating.

Source: Bloomberg Business News