Senegalese Opposition Calls for President Macky Sall’s Resignation Following Ousmane Sonko’s Sentencing

The Senegalese opposition coalition “Yewwi Askan Wi” called on Thursday, June 1, for the immediate resignation of President Macky Sall, following the sentencing of opponent Ousmane Sonko by a court in Dakar, to two years in prison. prison sentence for “corruption of youth”.

The platform considers the Head of State as the one and only responsible for Sonko’s legal setbacks. She accuses in a press release, President Macky Sall of “high treason and demands his immediate resignation”.

The coalition also calls on the Senegalese people to “maintain the mobilization and (…) resist intensely and in accordance with the Constitution throughout the country and the diaspora to safeguard the rights and freedoms of our fellow citizens, national unity and Senegalese democracy”, concludes his statement.

The conviction of Ousmane Sonko by a criminal chamber in Dakar squarely mortgages his candidacy for the next presidential election in February 2024. The “corruption of youth” in Senegal is considered an offense which consists in favoring the “debauchery” of a young under 21 years old.

The court’s verdict provoked clashes between the police and opposition supporters, with a dozen deaths in Dakar and Ziguinchor, the city of which Ousmane Sonko is the mayor, according to a statement made by the government.

The leader of the Pastef party, a member of the Coalition Yewwi Askan Wi, was on the other hand acquitted of the alleged charges of rape and death threats against an employee of a beauty salon where he went between 2020 and 2021, to do massages.