This hearing was shaping up to be a risky appointment. The trial brought against the opponent Ousmane Sonko by the Minister of Tourism Mame Mbaye Niang, an official of the presidential party, was punctuated, Thursday, March 16, clashes and incidents between young people and security forces in several neighborhoods of Dakar.

Nervousness turned aggressive after the court announced it would postpone the case to March 30. At the exit of the room, members of the entourage of both parties came to blows, forcing the security service to intervene and use irritating gas.

The minister is suing Ousmane Sonko for defamation, insults and forgery. He accuses him of having stated that he had been singled out by a report by the General State Inspectorate (IGE) for his management of a fund for youth employment.

"I was brutalized"

Groups of youths threw stones at gendarmes and police officers in the streets adjacent to the court. An impressive security apparatus had turned the complex into an entrenched camp. Security forces repeatedly pushed back the attackers with tear gas in deafening detonations.

Ousmane Sonko's journey to court, under heavy police escort through a city on alert, was itself marred by unrest. Security forces eventually forcibly extracted Ousmane Sonko from his vehicle and took him to the courthouse. Those accompanying him say he and others were manhandled during the transfer and sprayed with tear gas.

Once at the helm, Ousmane Sonko explained that he wanted to choose his route. "The police and gendarmerie impose an itinerary on me. I was brutalized. The regime relies only on the security forces."

Ousmane Sonko was examined by a doctor in court. After several hours, the hearing, under high tension, had still not addressed the substance of the case. The trial was eventually adjourned to 30 March.

>> See also: Senegal: what do we blame opposition leader Ousmane Sonko for and what does he risk?

Tensions in the run-up to the presidential election

This new bout of fever is the latest episode in a psychodrama that has kept the political world in suspense for two years and which has already, in the past, caused considerable trouble.

In March 2021, the indictment of Ousmane Sonko in a case of alleged rape and his arrest on the way to court helped spark the most serious riots in years in this country known as a rare island of stability in the region.

As the 2024 presidential election approaches, tensions are rising again.

The case of alleged rape – not tried for the moment – and that for defamation, pose the threat of a possible ineligibility on the candidacy of Ousmane Sonko.

He and his supporters cry out for the government's plot to eliminate him politically. Sonko had called on his supporters to come out massively to support him at the trial.

The personality of Ousmane Sonko, 48, divides the Senegalese. He holds a sovereignist, pan-Africanist and social discourse, attacking elites and corruption. His detractors denounce a populist who does not hesitate to blow on the social embers and to instrumentalize the street to escape justice.

President Macky Sall's doubt about whether or not he intends to run for a third term also contributes to pitting opposing camps against each other.

With AFP

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