A-Infos (en) France, OCL CA #336 - Political crisis in Senegal: a temporary lull but no exit in sight. (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

In June 2023, in particular, Senegal was the scene of clashes between 
supporters of the opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko and the forces 
serving the head of state Macky Sall, namely the police, the 
gendarmerie, and even "thugs" recruited as auxiliaries to deal with a 
riot situation (see C.A. of last October). Since then, the situation has 
experienced a certain calm, although one might have believed in a new 
wave of violence after the imprisonment of Ousmane Sonko and a large 
number of his supporters. However, with the electoral deadline next 
February, the same crisis factors remain, both in terms of political 
policy and on a social level.

A brief look back at the standoff between the government and the opposition

In March 2021, following Ousmane Sonko's summons to the Dakar court to 
answer charges of rape and death threats, Senegal was on fire for 
several days. This case attributed to an opponent occurred while two 
previous challengers of Macky Sall were sentenced to prison terms making 
them ineligible: in 2015, Karim Wade, the son of the previous president 
and in 2018, Khalifa Sall, dissident member of the socialist party who 
was then mayor of Dakar. A new wave of violence took place at the 
beginning of June 2023: given the weakness of the case, the court had 
given up prosecuting Sonko for rape and death threats, but had still 
condemned him for "corruption of the youth" to two years in prison, 
which was enough to disqualify him from the presidential race. In total, 
around fifty people died in these events, due to the action of the 
police (or militias acting as backup). To date, despite complaints filed 
by the families of the victims, there have been no investigations 
carried out to determine responsibility for these deaths.


The imprisonment of Sonko and the illegalization of the main opposition 
party
After being placed under de facto house arrest for 55 days at his home, 
the regime ended up incarcerating Sonko on July 30 on various grounds: 
call for insurrection, criminal association, attack on state security, 
conspiracy against the authority of the State, acts and maneuvers to 
compromise public security, criminal association in connection with a 
terrorist enterprise. In the process, his party, PASTEF, was dissolved. 
Even before this period in the preceding months many activists, 
including elected officials, were thrown in prison. After his arrest, 
Sonko went on hunger strike until September 2. He then resumed this 
strike to follow the movement started on October 10 by women detained at 
the Penal Camp.
In the weeks that followed, arrests continued. A French woman, Coline 
Fay, who participated in a rally in support of Sonko on November 17, was 
even arrested and charged with "criminal association in connection with 
a terrorist enterprise, an act likely to compromise the security of the 
State, complicity in "action against the authority of the State". 
Incarcerated in the women's prison (Penal Camp), she led a hunger strike 
to protest her arrest and detention.

Beyond police and judicial repression, the strategy of reprisals desired 
by the Macky regime
Beyond the direct repression which decimated the ranks of PASTEF and 
which also targeted other targets (journalists, members of "civil 
society" during the year 2023), it appears that the government is 
engaging in a strategy of reprisals targeting groups or sectors of 
society considered to have participated in protests against the regime. 
Geographically, the city of Ziguinchor which elected Sonko as mayor has 
found itself relatively cut off from the rest of the country since the 
events: the airport is under construction while the boat trips which 
linked Ziguinchor and Casamance to Dakar are suspended for "security 
reasons". Another symptomatic example is the University of Dakar which 
has been closed to students since June 1. Students are supposed to do 
distance learning which doesn't actually work. The current regime 
prefers to have a "white year" at the University of Dakar rather than 
take the risk of it becoming a hotbed of protest in an electoral context 
that it knows is high risk. This once again shows the level of cynicism 
of those in power when it comes to weighing the future of the country 
and its own perpetuation. Macky Sall prides himself on having put 
Senegal on the path to "emergence" but he is ready to sacrifice the 
economy of an entire region or the study opportunities of a new 
generation of high school graduates.

After the urban guerrilla war, the squabble on the political-judicial field
Ousmane Sonko's strategy, which consisted of relying on popular 
mobilization in his favor, particularly among young people, has also 
shown its limits. Since the last crisis in June and the incarceration of 
Sonko at the end of July, those in power seem to have managed to regain 
control. This is undoubtedly because PASTEF, faced with the repression 
that has taken place, probably does not have deep enough roots in the 
country. It is also because the fight has moved to another area, that of 
justice. The issue is that of Sonko's presence in the presidential 
election. The General Directorate of Elections (DGE), following Sonko's 
conviction to two years in prison for "corruption of youth", removed him 
from the electoral register. However, on October 18, a judge in 
Ziguinchor ordered that Sonko be reinstated in the file on the grounds 
that this conviction had not been legally notified to him, which would 
make him eligible again. The DGE nevertheless continued to refuse to 
comply. Then, it was the Autonomous National Electoral Commission (CENA) 
which also decided in favor of this reintegration. Immediately, the Head 
of State dismissed the members of the CENA whose mandate had officially 
ended several years ago. Later, the Supreme Court and the ECOWAS Court 
of Justice had to rule, in a rather negative sense in relation to the 
requests of Sonko's lawyers. But in the latest twist in this legal 
drama, on December 15, a court in Dakar once again ordered the 
reinstatement of Sonko in the file. But for their part, the government 
lawyers will appeal, so that we get as close as possible to the final 
date for submitting applications on December 26, which will make a Sonko 
candidacy increasingly unlikely despite the court decisions which were 
favorable to him. In fact, Macky Sall's government shows the little 
regard it has for court decisions since they risk allowing Sonko to be 
present in the February elections.

Attempts to block the vote by the ruling candidate...
To "kill the match" for the upcoming elections, the current regime seems 
to have chosen to exploit a system supposed to filter candidates. This 
is the sponsorship system: to be able to be a candidate, you must have 
the signature of a certain number of members of the electorate (roughly 
60,000 signatures or 0.6% of the electorate) or a a certain number of 
signatures of deputies (13) or local elected officials (120). However, 
the ruling party announces sponsorship collection figures at an 
exorbitant level: the government newspaper, Le Soleil, wrote at the 
beginning of December that the candidacy of Amadou Ba, the current prime 
minister designated as Macky Sall's "dauphin", had recorded up to 
3,700,000 sponsorships, or half of the electorate. Whether this figure 
is inflated or not, this clearly indicates the government's strategy: to 
ensure that the "pool" of sponsorships is dried up by the steamroller of 
the presidential party, not to mention the "bogus" candidacies of 
profiteers ready to withdraw for the candidacy of power in exchange for 
hard cash and/or various advantages. Added to this are the obstacles 
placed on other opposition candidates who are prevented from traveling 
in certain regions when seeking sponsorship, under the pretext of risk 
of disturbance to public order.

...and resistance from the opposition
On the side of PASTEF, the party which had the candidate having every 
chance of being present in the second round and winning the elections, 
there is another candidacy which is emerging, that of Bassirou Diomaye 
Faye, the de facto number 2 of the party which is also imprisoned for 
various offenses including contempt of court but which has not (yet?) 
been removed from the electoral lists. But in any case, everything 
indicates that the regime has chosen to rule out a priori any candidacy 
emanating from this party which has become the bête noire of the regime.

Migrants leaving the country for the Canaries
The splitting of the presidential camp
But in the power camp, even if he seems to have succeeded in subduing 
his opposition adversaries through repression, there is also 
uncertainty. Firstly because Macky Sall has "used up" more and more 
figures from his own camp who now find themselves in the opposition 
(notably the former prime minister who led the presidential party's 
campaign for the legislative elections in 2022 ) or who present 
dissident candidacies against Amadou Ba (Aly Gouye Ndiaye former 
Minister of the Interior and Bounne Abdallah former Prime Minister). 
Then, because within the very presidential party that he is supposed to 
embody, Amadou Ba is considered not very credible and has been the 
target of criticism within the Alliance for the Republic (APR) which one 
wonders if they are not are not remotely controlled by the head of state 
himself. The prospect of a postponement of the elections is sometimes 
mentioned, which would allow Macky Sall to remain in power, thus going 
back on his promise made under the pressure of events, a few months ago, 
to leave power and not to run again. for a third term. In the same 
register, the question of the intervention of the army in this regime 
crisis is not pure political fiction: during the International Forum on 
Peace and Security which took place at the end of November, a Senegalese 
general put forward the idea of subjecting politicians to "a single 
mandate of seven or eight years" to avoid the electoral crises which 
regularly shake African countries...

France's continued support for a regime which remains one of its last 
points of support after the wave of coups in neighboring countries
However, the position of the French government remains totally in favor 
of the current regime. Macky Sall's Senegal remains with Alassane 
Ouattara's Ivory Coast, the main point of support for the strategy which 
consists of maintaining against all odds a Françafrique which is 
increasingly falling apart with the departure of the military from Mali 
, Burkina Faso and Niger. On November 13, Macron took the liberty of 
intervening in favor of Macky Sall to bombard him at the head of a 
pro-imperialist Théodule committee: the Paris Pact for Peace and Climate 
(4P) in case he was unemployed in leaving power. In December, Amadou Ba, 
to consolidate his presidential image, was able to appear alongside 
Elisabeth Borne during a Franco-Senegalese intergovernmental seminar. In 
the event of an open crisis, the support of the French state would be 
acquired by the regime, which knows that Macron is ready to do anything 
not to lose face once again in an African country, especially when it 
comes to the democratic showcase of Françafrique, even if numerous facts 
symptomatic of the dictatorial drift of the regime are increasingly 
tarnishing this brand image.
In any case, this electoral campaign, which focuses on legal issues 
linked to the desire of those in power to exclude certain candidates a 
priori, ignores social issues even more than if it had been a question 
of an open and non-controversial election.

Conclusion: political impasse aggravates the social crisis
The Macky Sall regime's discourse is that of "emerging Senegal". It 
boasts economic results of an unprecedented level in the history of the 
country, with an economic growth rate of around 6 to 7%, which could 
further increase with the start of gas and oil exploitation. from next 
year. The justification for its power is based on the political 
stability which would allow this growth, supported through public 
investment in infrastructure (roads, highways, electricity and water 
supply networks, etc.). But this growth remains limited to certain 
sectors (in particular urban real estate or agro-business which allow 
speculative gains) and ultimately only benefits a minority of 
Senegalese, or even foreign businessmen like the famous Frank Timis who 
after having hit the headlines for having obtained oil concessions 
through Aliou Sall, the president's brother, returns to the news by 
acquiring 20,000 hectares of land which will be devoted to the 
cultivation of alfalfa intended for export...
Conversely, traditional sectors of the Senegalese economy, such as 
peanuts and oil mills or even fishing, are devastated, in a context 
where increased globalization and the sell-out of the country's 
interests in favor of short-term calculations have prevented the 
construction of economically and ecologically sustainable sectors.

The Zuiderdam, one of the largest cruise ships, welcomed at the port of 
Dakar
In recent months, even before the electoral deadlines, many Senegalese 
voted with their feet by leaving their country in canoes. Thousands have 
managed to reach the Canaries where an obstacle course awaits them to 
find a situation in Europe, without forgetting the hundreds who have 
disappeared at sea. The fishing crisis which makes it more interesting 
for the boss of Whether a canoe conveys migrants or casts its nets for 
increasingly meager catches can explain the increase in these 
departures, but it is above all the lack of prospects for an 
impoverished population that explains this. The authorities, faced with 
the phenomenon, continue to develop a discourse of blaming migrants 
without mentioning outright repression: hundreds of fishermen accused of 
ferrying migrants are currently incarcerated. At the same time, the 
Dakar port authorities welcomed with great fanfare the Zuiderdam, one of 
the largest cruise ships (and one of the most polluting!) which can 
transport nearly two thousand tourists with more than eight hundred men 
crew. Criminalizing the poor who try to find a future elsewhere than in 
their own country and rolling out the red carpet to foreigners with deep 
wallets sums up rather well the pro-imperialist line faithfully followed 
by the current Senegalese state.

http://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4056
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