Nine people were killed in protests following the sentencing of Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, authorities in Senegal said early on Friday June 2, 2023. Deutsche Welle reports that Interior Minister Antoine Felix Abdoulaye Diome made the announcement on state television, adding that the deaths happened in Dakar and Ziguinchor.

On May 31, a court sentenced sentenced former presidential candidate Sonko to two years in prison over “corrupting youth,” but acquitted him of rape charges.

The court ruling and protests are happening at the same time as the launch of the national dialogue between the government and the various political and civil society players.

Sonko, an outspoken opponent of President Macky Sall, was reportedly arrested on May 30, 2023, interrupting his cross-country march, which Interior Minister Antoine Diome said needed authorisation. He added that Sonko had not been arrested, but rather “dropped off” at his Dakar home. Sonko called on his supporters to protest on social media against the current government.

For Sonko and his opposition party, this arrest underlined Sall’s intentions to run for a third term, which Sonko has denounced. Sonko said that the 2016 constitutional revision reset the counters and therefore “erased” Macky Sall’s first term that started in 2012. The justice ministry has reset Sall’s term to run from 2019 to 2024.

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