Burnt buses are seen parked in a lot for out-of-service vehicles after a fire broke out during protests, last night, in Cayur Massar, Dakar Region, Senegal, May 16, 2023. Photo Credit: AP
Three people were killed in clashes between Senegalese police and supporters of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, officials said Tuesday.
Two youths were found dead overnight in the capital Dakar and the southern city of Ziguinchor, where a policeman died on Monday after being accidentally run over by an anti-riot vehicle, the interior ministry said.
Crowds in Ziguinchor, where Mr Sonko is mayor, pelted stones at police on Monday, who responded with tear gas, according to an AFP correspondent.
In Dakar, around 20 vehicles were torched at a depot belonging to the national bus company, and the local press said that two stores belonging to the French supermarket chain Auchan were also attacked, which has often been targeted in disturbances. .
The violence erupted on the eve of a scheduled court appearance for Sanko, who is facing trial for allegedly raping an employee at a beauty salon where he had gone for a massage.
Young protesters in Ziguinchor blocked roads leading to their homes on Tuesday, some of them holding stones or steel rods, to prevent authorities from taking them away.
Mr Sonko’s trial meanwhile began in Dakar, more than 400 kilometers (250 miles) to the north, and was immediately adjourned until 23 May after he failed to show up.
Her accuser Adji Sarr, a woman in her twenties, and Mr. Sonko’s co-accused, Ndiye Khadi Ndiye, who owns the massage parlor where the alleged rape took place, were both present.
“I feel good. I am confident. We are going to win. It is a pity that after waiting two years for a trial, he (Sonko) has fled,” Ms Sarr said before the proceedings began. Said.
Mr Sonko, 48, who was recently given a six-month suspended prison sentence for defamation and insubordination against the tourism minister, has denied the charge.
Mr. Sanko, president of the PASTEF-Patriots party, came third in the 2019 presidential elections.
He says that the legal cases against him are a conspiracy to stop him from contesting in the 2024 elections.
Senegal has traditionally been a beacon of stability in troubled West Africa, but in recent years has been hit by unrest that has at times turned deadly.
When Mr Sonko was arrested in 2021, at least 12 people were killed in several days of protests.
The interior ministry did not directly attribute the latest death of two youths to the protests on Tuesday, but said it “strongly urges parents to prevent their children from participating in violent demonstrations.”
It said these incidents were attributable to “assaults, thefts, looting and other acts of vandalism”.