By Madhavi Rao ’24
Staff Writer
Content warning: This article discusses rape allegations and police brutality.
In the past few weeks, protests have spread across Senegal, spurred by the arrest of the opposition party leader Ousmane Sonko. Sonko was arrested for rape, a charge many consider false and politically motivated given that the current head of the Senegalese government has a history of creating legal charges to suppress opponents. Despite this, In 2019, Senegal was categorized as one of the most democratic countries in Africa by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
On March 3, Sonko was detained by police on the way to his court hearing concerning allegations of rape. The victim, a woman who works at a massage parlor, stated that Sonko was a frequent visitor of her parlor and that he propositioned her, attacking her when she refused, according to The New York Times. As protests surrounding the detainment began, Sonko was arrested on charges of insurrection, reported Amnesty International. Sonko has denied the rape allegation, stating that the charges were politically motivated. According to BBC News, he accused President of Senegal Macky Sall of removing his opponents before the upcoming election in 2024.
“There is genuine fear and [a] widespread perception among the populace that [Macky] Sall is deliberately using old tricks to silence possible opponents in the 2024 elections … as [in] the 2019 general elections,” Visiting Lecturer in Politics at Mount Holyoke Bonfas Owinga explained.
If convicted, Sonko would be imprisoned for up to 10 years and banned from participating in the 2024 election. This, according to Bloomberg, is what happened to Khalifa Sall, the former mayor of Senegal's capital city Dakar. Khalifa Sall was widely expected to run for president during the 2019 elections. Moreover, Bloomberg reported that there are some in the opposition who worry that Macky Sall plans to amend the country’s constitution, allowing presidents to remain in office for more than the current two consecutive terms. BBC News stated that Sonko would have been Macky Sall’s only remaining challenger in the upcoming election.
“I think the youth see Sonko as a shift [away] from the current president and the political climate in Senegal. Sonko is one of the politicians who has loudly denounced France’s heavy economic involvement in Senegal,” Soukenya Abbott ’20, a Mount Holyoke graduate from Senegal, explained. “In a country where [about 60] percent of the population is under 25 and remain[s] chronically unemployed, the arrest of Sonko was a spark in denouncing the government’s mistreatment of this group, especially since the pandemic began.”
The protesters, mainly Senegalese youth, also objected to the lack of job opportunities in the country, economic issues exacerbated by the poor handling of the pandemic and a president they consider dictatorial, according to The New York Times. The protests are also aimed at French companies that seem to be profiting from Senegalese markets while domestic companies struggle, reported Al-Jazeera.
“This message of economic independence resonates very well with the youth in Senegal who believe that France’s involvement in Senegal’s economy stifles locally owned businesses and contributes to their unemployment,” Owinga said. “Economic problems in Senegal have also been exacerbated by the COVID curfews, which have forced many small businesses to close down and negatively affected the informal economy, which supports the majority of the population.”
The largely peaceful demonstrations were met with harsh police crackdowns, resulting in the deaths of at least five protesting individuals, according to Al-Jazeera. “We reiterate our call on the authorities to launch impartial investigations into the circumstances of these deaths, and we urge them to ensure people can safely exercise their right to peaceful assembly, as protected under the country’s constitution and international law,” Director of Amnesty International’s West and Central African chapter Samira Daoud stated. In response to the deaths, Macky Sall announced a national day of mourning on March 11.
“As a Senegalese abroad, it was scary to hear about all the protests because the police were being pretty violent, and at one point they had shut down YouTube and WhatsApp audio messages, … photos and videos,” Abbott explained. “I think overall the whole situation showed a shift in Senegalese politics and the youth showing the current government that they will not be ignored.”