Will Senegal regain its calm?

The day of "peaceful demonstration" scheduled for Saturday, a few days after the worst clashes the country has experienced in a decade, was postponed sine die Friday March 12 by the protest movement which supports the opponent Ousmane Sonko, after a call the appeasement of Muslim and Christian circles.

The postponement of the demonstrations, which presented the risk of further violence, was announced in the middle of the evening by the Movement for the Defense of Democracy (M2D).

Postponement sine die

This recently created collective, which includes Ousmane Sonko's Pastef-Les Patriotes party, called for rallies on Saturday afternoon on Place de la Nation in Dakar and in the country.

In a statement, he "calls on the people to remain mobilized and attentive" but does not set a new date for the demonstrations.

Senegal was the scene last week of clashes between young people and the police, looting and looting after the arrest of Ousmane Sonko, third in the 2019 presidential election and expected to be one of the main candidates for that election. from 2024.

>> To read also: "Who is Ousmane Sonko, the Senegalese opponent whose arrest set the country ablaze?"

This violence has killed at least five people - eleven according to the protest collective - during the most serious disturbances since 2012 in this country known as an island of stability in West Africa.

Tensions eased on Tuesday, the day after Ousmane Sonko's release and a speech by President Macky Sall calling for "appeasement".

The religious guides had already intervened behind the scenes to call the parties to restraint.

"Ten point memorandum"

In a press release published at the end of the day on Friday, the general caliphs (leaders) of the major Muslim brotherhoods, very influential in Senegal, and representatives of the Catholic Church once again invited the majority, civil society and the opposition " to continue the work already started in the direction of pacification ".

A little later in the evening, the M2D explained to have "received Serigne Bassirou Mbacké Porokhane, emissary of the general caliph (of the brotherhood) of the Mourides, Serigne Mountakha Mbacké" and to have "accepted the request for postponement of the demonstration of Saturday 13 March formulated by the venerated Caliph ".

"In return", the protest movement transmitted a "ten point memorandum", saying they hope that religious guides will find "for once a listening ear with President Macky Sall for a lasting peace in the country".

In its book of demands, the M2D demands in particular the “immediate release” of those it considers to be “political prisoners” and that we put “an immediate end to the politico-judicial plot fomented against Ousmane Sonko”.

The opponent was indicted Monday for alleged rape in a file opened following a complaint filed against him by an employee of the beauty salon where he was going to be massaged to, he said, relieve his back pain.

He was released under judicial supervision.

Ousmane Sonko shouts at the plot hatched by Macky Sall to remove him from the next presidential election, which the head of state has refuted.

The opponent also denounced the arrest of several dozen of his supporters.

After the rallying to power of Idrissa Seck, second in the 2019 presidential election, and the sidelining of Karim Wade and Khalifa Sall, convicted of embezzlement, Ousmane Sonko has become the main opponent.

Macky Sall blur on a new candidacy

In its book of demands, the M2D also demands that "publicly recognized the constitutional and moral impossibility" of President Macky Sall "to run for a third term" in 2024.

Macky Sall, 59, elected in 2012 and re-elected in 2019, remains uncertain about the possibility of a candidacy for a third term, despite the limit of two introduced after a constitutional revision approved in 2016.

Like opponents, the international organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for an independent investigation.

"The recent deaths of protesters as well as injuries should be the subject of credible investigations and members of the security forces who used illegal or excessive force should be brought to justice," the NGO said on Friday. a statement.

With AFP

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