Opposition leader Sonko was considered a promising candidate for the presidential election in Senegal – until he was excluded from it. He has now ended his hunger strike after more than a month.
Jailed Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko has ended his hunger strike. This was announced by a spokesman for Sonko’s party. Several influential Muslim leaders had previously urged the opposition leader to start eating again. His lawyers and his party had warned that Sonko was in mortal danger.
Sonko started his hunger strike on July 30th. On August 6, he was taken to a hospital in Senegal’s capital Dakar.
Exclusion from election “final”
In June, Sonko, who wants to run in next year’s presidential election, was sentenced in absentia by a court to two years in prison for “seducing youth”. Sonko has criticized the trial as a plot to bar him from the presidential election.
At the end of July, he was arrested in connection with violent protests in 2021, among other things, because of incitement to riot, criminal organization in connection with a terrorist enterprise and endangering state security.
Senegalese Justice Minister Ismaïla Madior Fall stressed in an interview on Wednesday that Sonko’s conviction in June was “final”. Accordingly, the opposition leader cannot compete in the 2024 presidential election.
election next year
Sonko’s party, the Senegalese African Patriotic Labor, Ethics and Fraternity Party (PASTEF), was dissolved by the authorities. Hundreds of supporters and party members were arrested. This led to heavy criticism from human rights groups.
Before his conviction, Sonko was considered a promising candidate for the presidential election on February 25, 2024. He is a bitter opponent of President Macky Sall, who has been in office since 2012 and is considered pro-Western. He had announced in July that he would not run for a third term in the election.
So far, Senegal has been seen as a role model for stability in West Africa. There were three peaceful transfers of power in 2000, 2012 and 2019. The country was spared a coup. In addition, the predominantly Muslim country was largely spared Islamist attacks.