Without hesitation, 27-year-old Simon grabbed a rock. He advances, glaring, and throws it in the direction of the police. No question that they advance. He says he is ready to give his life to protect his leader, the main Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko. The latter, 48, a declared presidential candidate in 2024, is implicated in a rape case and was to appear on Tuesday May 16 before a criminal chamber in Dakar.
But it was several hundred kilometers away that he was, in Ziguinchor, the main city in southern Senegal, of which he is the mayor and where he has retired for a few days. His trial was eventually adjourned to May 23.
Despite a sleepless night and violent clashes the day before against police in the capital of Casamance, Simon and his young comrades continued to stand guard on Tuesday around the home of the one they consider their savior. They hate President Macky Sall, whom they accuse of having abandoned them. Many of them are unemployed or survive small jobs, facing economic difficulties.
Tension, anger and fear
Masked faces and armed with sticks or stones, since Monday they have been the masters of the main arteries of the city littered with stones and burnt tires. Trunks and piles of scrap metal blocked the alleys leading to the house of Mr. Sonko, who cries of the plot hatched by power to remove him politically.
These young people, aged between 18 and 30 for the most part, suspect the state of wanting to come and catch the mayor of Ziguinchor in his stronghold. “We are ready to lay down our lives in this fight. Whoever wants to get Sonko out of here will have to go through our body, “says a young man in the middle of a group of excited young people, all hooded, bottles of vinegar in hand to protect themselves from tear gas, they say.
This “combat” is also carried by a few women dressed in black, singing and dancing in front of the opponent’s house. They belong to the “sacred grove”, a traditional group believed to have mystical powers. “They are there to protect Ousmane Sonko,” said one protester.
In this context of great tension, anger and fear, the city is running in slow motion. Most shops are closed, schools too. Simon is on the front line of clashes with law enforcement. Single and father of a child, he says he is leading this fight for “the future of his son” and “that of Senegal”. Electrician by trade, Simon, bushy beard, clothes red with dust, deplores “endemic” unemployment in the region. “I can stay three months without a job to the point that it’s even difficult to give 500 francs to the house”, he enrages.
A “great hope”
Aged 29, Ansou, a master’s student in mathematics at Assane-Seck University in Ziguinchor, is also driven by anger and despair. He too is struggling to find a job, he says. “We run from left to right every day, but nothing. It hurts, we can’t even help our parents, ”says Maurice.
Capital of Casamance, Ziguinchor has 641,254 inhabitants, more than 70% of whom are young people, according to the National Agency for Statistics and Demography (ANSD). Despite its strong economic potential with its many forest resources, motorbike taxis commonly known as Jakarta are the main activity of young people – including many graduates -, a job that most of them believe is a springboard, for lack of anything better.
For them, Ousmane Sonko represents a “great hope”. “I was not interested in politics, but his speech convinced me. With him, there will be no more injustice, no more thieves in this country. He is a man of principle,” said Ousmane, who said he was ready to fight at the cost of his life.
Tuesday, after a few hours of calm, the clashes resumed at midday, despite the adjournment of the trial. Under the clouds of tear gas launched by the police, children under the age of 10 ran in all directions, stones in hand.
