Senegal: Opposition leaders call for calm

In Senegal, it is still the lull after the violence that broke out last week in the wake of the sentencing of the opponent Ousmane Sonko to two years in prison. Neither President Macky Sall nor Ousmane Sonko commented on these clashes. In the opposition, officials call for calm and question the head of state.

Opposition leader Khalifa Sall confronts the press and his activists in Dakar, Senegal, October 21, 2019 (Illustration image). SEYLLOU / AFP

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With our correspondent in Dakar, Charlotte Idrac

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We have seen death. This is not good for our people. This is not good for Senegal's global reach," Idrissa Seck told RFI in English. And for the former prime minister, who left the ruling coalition last April, "the situation will only get worse if President Macky Sall announces a candidacy for a third term". He calls on the Head of State to settle the debate.

Khalifa Sall, also a declared candidate in the election scheduled for February 2024, but for the moment ineligible, deplores for his part "disastrous events", "the fruit of a breach of trust between political actors and frustrations accumulated since the selection of (political) protagonists in electoral jousts has become a rule". For the former mayor of Dakar, the head of state must "take height". "The right order is to hold free, transparent and inclusive elections, where only the people will have the last word," he said.

Karim Wade's call for responsibility

As for Karim Wade, still in exile in Qatar, he called on Monday, June 7 in a message for the "responsibility" of "the entire political class" and "restraint". Without mentioning the debate on the third term, the PDS candidate stresses that he was "the first politician to suffer in 2012 the consequences of the will of the current regime to eliminate all forms of opposition", end of quote. But "power is not caught by stepping on corpses," he writes.

The unrest that followed the sentencing of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko to two years in prison officially left 16 dead, more than 350 injured, and material damage is considerable in Senegal. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has temporarily closed several consulates abroad, attacked in recent days, such as in Paris, New York or Milan. Mobile internet was restored last night, but access to social networks remains restricted.

► READ ALSO: Senegal: a resumption of activities difficult for taxis and schools in Dakar after the violence

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• Senegal
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