On RFI and France 24, Ousmane Sonko firmly denied the rape charges for which he was charged after a complaint filed in February 2021. Placed under judicial supervision in March 2021, he claims to be the victim of "a state plot" initiated by relatives of the Senegalese president.

"There was never any question of rape and there will never be any question of rape concerning me," repeated the opponent, who refused to submit to a DNA test.

Ousmane Sonko considered "unhealthy" the possibility of seeing Macky Sall run for a third term.

He felt that the president would thus "spit" on the Constitution, which stipulates that no one can serve two successive terms at the top of the state.

For Ousmane Sonko, Macky Sall's strategy consists in promoting himself on the international scene as the only one who can ensure stability, exploiting the "extremely disturbed regional context", and presenting his opposition as "irresponsible" and "terrorist". 

Addressing the growing influence of the Russian group Wagner, at the expense of France, in several neighboring countries, such as Mali, Ousmane Sonko regretted seeing them celebrate "a logic of" replacement rather than sovereignty ": for the main Senegalese opponent, there is no question of "replacing a partnership which was considered unfavorable by a new one which may be much more so".

Regarding the legal file concerning Mr. Ousmane Sonko, the management of RFI would like to point out that its journalists, in Dakar as in Paris, have always taken care to cover this affair with the greatest rigor and with a constant concern for balance.

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