Nine killed in Senegal clashes after opposition leader sentenced

Nine people have died in clashes across Senegal, the interior minister said Friday, after a court sentenced firebrand opposition leader Ousmane Sonko to two years in jail.

A conviction for "corrupting youth" may disqualify Sonko, President Macky Sall's fiercest opponent, from contesting next year's presidential election.

The case has deeply divided Senegal, sparking sporadic but deadly violence that has battered the country's image of stability.

After Thursday's verdict, clashes broke out between police and protesters, buses were set alight in the capital Dakar, and disturbances were reported elsewhere including the city of Ziguinchor, where Sonko has been mayor since 2022.

"We have noted with regret violence that has led to the destruction of public and private property and, unfortunately, nine deaths in Dakar and Ziguinchor," Interior Minister Antoine Diome said on national television.

Two police officials told AFP on condition of anonymity that at least three of the deaths occurred at demonstrations in Ziguinchor, and a policeman was stoned to death by young protesters in the capital.

A former civil servant, Sonko rose to prominence in presidential elections in 2019, coming third after a campaign that took aim at Sall and the country's ruling elite.

He portrays Sall as corrupt and a would-be dictator, while the president's supporters call Sonko a rabble-rouser who has sown instability.

His initial arrest on rape charges in 2021 sparked several days of clashes that left at least 12 people dead.

The 48-year-old did not attend the trial and was absent when Thursday's judgement was handed down.

He was presumed to be at his Dakar home, where he had been blocked in by security forces after being detained at the weekend.

The court did not rule on whether he should be arrested. But after two years of a confrontation with the authorities, the head of the PASTEF-Patriots party could now be arrested "at any time", Justice Minister Ismaila Madior Fall told journalists.

When the Dakar criminal court handed down its verdict, Sonko's party called on the Senegalese people to "take to the streets".

The university campus in Dakar was turned into something resembling a battlefield.

Groups of young people pelted police in riot gear with stones. Police fired back with tear gas.

Several buses from the faculty of medicine, the history department and the country's leading school of journalism were set on fire and offices ransacked. Classes were suspended until further notice.