In Ousmane Sonko’s camp, cries of alarm are multiplying. After a month of a hunger strike that began on July 30 after his detention, the leader of the African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (Pastef) is, according to his relatives, “unrecognizable”, in “beginning of heart failure”, victim of “severe hypoglycemia”. His condition has reached an “alarming threshold”, again alerted Wednesday, August 30, Me Ciré Cledor Ly, spokesperson for the opponent’s collective of lawyers. “It is to be feared that medical care alone can no longer prevent him from irreversibly deteriorating his vital organs,” he concluded after a visit to Ousmane Sonko.
Discreet despite the media tumult around their husband, the two wives of the opponent spoke for the first time to plead for his release with the Head of State, in an interview with the journalist Pape Alé Niang, himself prosecuted by the Senegalese courts for “calling for insurrection”.
However, Ousmane Sonko’s refusal to eat, drink and receive medical treatment seemed to have been resolved on August 22 after members of the opposition Yewwi Askan Wi coalition visited Touba, the holy city of the Muslim brotherhood. of the murids. The guide of this community, Serigne Mountakha Bassirou Mbacké, then called on the Pastef leader to end his hunger strike, inviting him to eat some dates he had sent to him. In vain.
The power does not yield
“For us to be able to send him [the Mouride guide’s request], he would have already had to be able to recognize us and know the purpose of our visit, except that he is in a critical situation”, justified himself. former minister Habib Sy after a visit to Ousmane Sonko’s bedside. “He can no longer stay in prison,” added Aïda Mbodj, one of the leaders of Yewwi Askan Wi, with a tight face.
Ousmane Sonko was admitted to the intensive care unit of Dakar’s main hospital on the night of August 16-17. Refusing to drink, eat and treat himself since his incarceration in order, according to his lawyers, to challenge his arrest and “the dictatorial regime of Macky Sall”, he had been interned on August 6.
Although he continues to promote dialogue between the authorities and the opposition, Alioune Tine, the founder of the think tank AfrikaJom Center, regrets that mediation has become “very difficult in a context of radicalization of power”. The independent expert signed with 141 personalities, including the former Minister of Justice Serigne Diop, a petition to call for the release of Ousmane Sonko “in order to preserve his life”.
In the entourage of Macky Sall, however, intransigence remains in place. “We are in a state of law”, annoys a close collaborator of the Senegalese president sheltering behind the separation of powers. “If he is to be released on this basis, any prisoners who go on a hunger strike will be too,” he adds.
The Pastef dissolved and removed from the electoral lists
In difficulty, the former party of the opponent – the Pastef was dissolved in the wake of the imprisonment of Ousmane Sonko, on July 31 – still excludes any other option than a candidacy of Ousmane Sonko for the planned presidential election. in February 2024. “Sonko is more than ever eligible and remains our one and only candidate”, reaffirmed Tuesday, El Malick Ndiaye, the spokesperson for Pastef, while the debate on possible alternatives is open.
However, the ability of the opponent to present himself seems seriously undermined. His removal from the electoral lists has been confirmed by the Senegalese authorities, although his party claims to have received no notification. Under the influence of two convictions for defamation and “corruption of youth”, Ousmane Sonko has also been prosecuted since the end of July on nine counts, including calling for insurrection.
His lawyers are demanding his release, believing that his imprisonment at the end of July calls into question the judgment pronounced in absentia in June in the trial for rape which opposed him to the young masseuse Adji Sarr. The prosecution as well as the Department of Justice say that the two proceedings – the July lawsuits and the Sweet Beauty case – are not related.
The demonstrations on the sidelines of his summons to court in March and 2021 and June 2023 left 37 dead according to Amnesty International and considerable damage. On August 24, the State of Senegal announced through its lawyers that it intends to become a civil party in the legal proceedings in connection with recent unrest that shook the country in June opened against Ousmane Sonko and his Franco-Spanish lawyer Juan Branco, arrested and then deported in early August after his clandestine entry into Senegal. “The State has suffered from attacks and looting of public property” and intends to obtain “compensation for the damage”, according to Me Ndèye Anta Mbaye, member of the collective.
