March 23 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The President of Senegal, Macky Sall, has called on the security forces to “adopt all appropriate measures” to guarantee “public order”, after the latest demonstrations called by the opposition, which have resulted in at least one dead.
The president has emphasized “the imperative to preserve democratic advances and public order” and recalled that “Senegal is a reference State of Law and an exemplary democracy,” according to a statement published by the Senegalese government.
Thus, Sall has demanded from the Executive during a Council of Ministers that “all suitable measures be taken to guarantee security in the national territory and the absolute security of people and property after the public order problems of recent days”.
The capital of Senegal, Dakar, and other cities in the country have been the scene of mobilizations in recent days to protest against the trial for alleged defamation opened against opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, who is also mayor of Ziguinchor (south).
Sonko, who denounced on Monday from the hospital the “brutality” exercised by the security forces against him and pointed out that the objective was to “cause him physical harm”, has affirmed that the judicial process seeks a sentence that separates him from the planned presidential elections in 2024.
Sall himself rejected on Monday the allegations about the possibility of violating the two-term limit should he run for re-election, stressing that “in the legal field, the debate has been closed for a long time.” However, he specified that he has not yet decided whether he will run for the polls again.
The opposition has denounced on several occasions that the president plans to run for a third term. The Senegalese constitution limits the total number of terms to two and an attempt to extend his stay in power could lead to instability.
