16, May 2023
Several dead in Senegal clashes as opposition leader Sonko’s rape trial adjourned 0
Three people died during clashes between Senegalese police and supporters of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, the authorities said on Tuesday, amid flaring tensions triggered by a legal showdown.
Two young people were found dead overnight in the capital Dakar and southern city of Ziguinchor, where a policeman died on Monday after being accidentally crushed by an armoured anti-riot vehicle, the interior ministry said.
Crowds in Ziguinchor, where Sonko is mayor, on Monday hurled stones at police who responded with tear gas, according to an AFP correspondent there.
In Dakar, around 20 vehicles at a depot belonging to the national bus company were torched, and the local press said two stores belonging to the French supermarket chain Auchan, which has been frequently targeted in disturbances, were also attacked.
The violence erupted on the eve of a scheduled court appearance by Sonko, who is facing trial for the alleged rape of an employee at a beauty salon where he went for a massage.
Young demonstrators in Ziguinchor on Tuesday blocked off the streets leading to his home, some of them holding rocks or wielding steel bars, to prevent the authorities from taking him.
Sonko’s trial opened meanwhile in Dakar, more than 400 kilometres (250 miles) to the north, and was immediately adjourned until May 23 after he failed to show.
His accuser Adji Sarr, a woman in her twenties, and Sonko’s co-accused, Ndeye Khady Ndiaye, who owns the massage parlour where the alleged rape took place, were both present.
“I feel fine. I have confidence. We are going to win. It’s a pity that after waiting two years for a trial, he (Sonko) has fled,” Sarr said, speaking before proceedings opened.
Sonko, 48, who was also recently sentenced to a six-month suspended prison sentence for defamation and insults against the tourism minister, has denied the charge.
Sonko, president of the PASTEF-Patriots party, came in third in the 2019 presidential elections.
He says the legal cases against him are a plot aimed at barring him from contesting the 2024 vote.
Senegal is traditionally a beacon of stability in troubled West Africa, but in recent years has been buffeted by turbulence that has at times turned deadly.
When Sonko was arrested in 2021, several days of protests left at least 12 people dead.
The interior ministry on Tuesday did not directly attribute the latest death of the two young people to the protests, but said it “strongly urges parents to prevent their children from taking part in violent demonstrations.”
These events are liable to “attacks, theft, looting and other acts of vandalism,” it said.
Source: AFP
19, May 2023
UN says more than a million people displaced by Sudan crisis 0
More than a million people have been displaced by fighting in Sudan so far, including a quarter of a million refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson says.
The latest figure includes some 843,000 people displaced internally and around 250,000 people who have fled across Sudan’s borders, Matthew Saltmarsh told a Geneva briefing on Friday.
With hundreds of casualties and the streets of the capital Khartoum being turned into battle zones, the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been engaged in weeks-long conflict.
Refugees have flocked to the neighboring countries of Sudan, including Chad, Ethiopia, and South Sudan, all of which are experiencing severe humanitarian crises.
Since the start of the conflict, Egypt has received the largest amount of Sudanese refugees than any other country, around 110,000, according to Saltmarsh.
“Many of those who have approached us are in a distressed state having been exposed to violence or traumatic conditions in Sudan, and having suffered arduous journeys,” Saltmarsh said. The pace has increased in recent weeks, he added, with some 5,000 arriving each day in Egypt.
Thousands of people have been injured and hundreds of people have died as a result of the fighting in the northeast African country so far.
Source: Presstv