Clashes erupt in Senegal after opposition leader Ousmane Sonko charged and detained

Sporadic demonstrations broke out on Monday (July 31) across Senegal’s capital after opposition leader Ousmane Sonko was charged with fomenting insurrection and detained.

The key opposition figure and President Macky Sall’s fiercest critic is in the midst of facing multiple legal woes which claims have been designed to keep the presidential candidate out of politics.

Sonko’s lawyer about the charges and arrest

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Sonko “has been charged and placed in custody,” lawyer Ousseynou Ngom told AFP. This comes after the leading opposition figure was charged with undermining state security, criminal association with a terrorist body, disseminating false news and theft, last week.

Sonko was remanded in custody by a judge on these charges, on Monday. “We think it was a political order that was unfortunately carried out by a judge,” said the opposition leader’s lawyer, Babacar Ndiaye.

Sonko, who denies wrongdoing, was detained last week following a scuffle with security forces outside his home in the Senegalese capital. He also announced a hunger strike on Sunday, while in detention.

According to his lawyers, there was no limit to his detention time as the new charges are criminal, reported AFP. “It’s a farce,” Cire Cledor Ly, one of Sonko’s lawyers, told reporters. “It’s a plot that was formed, thought out, planned and executed.”

The opposition leader, who was arrested on Friday, on new criminal charges was also sentenced to two years in prison for “corrupting youth,” last month, but was not arrested then.

The verdict, in June, had since sparked protests which led to the death of at least 24 people, according to Amnesty International, and 30 according to Sonko’s party.

Protests and clashes in Dakar

According to a report by Reuters, protesters blocked the highway into Dakar on Monday with burnt tyres and trucks, this was prior to the judge’s ruling in the latest case. Sporadic groups of protesters also clashed with police, who fired tear gas, reported the news agency.

Government dissolves opposition party

Senegal’s interior minister, on Monday, said that it had dissolved Sonko’s PASTEF party for rallying supporters into stoking unrest when massive protests broke out in June. The government has also restricted internet access due to the spread of “hateful and subversive messages” on social media.

This comes a day after Sonko had called on Senegalese people to “stand up” and “resist...oppression”. After the announcement, Amnesty International took to X, formerly known as Twitter to condemn the internet restrictions and called it an “attack on freedom of information”.

(With inputs from agencies)

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