In an Africa where many countries have experienced moments of socio-political instability in their recent or past history, current events in Senegal are widely followed and commented on. This means that after the Senegalese opponent Ousmane Sonko was sentenced to two years in prison for “youth corruption”, it was to be expected that the shock wave of the resulting riots would be felt far away, hundreds or even thousands of kilometers from the country of Teranga. This violence, according to official figures, caused the death of fifteen people and extensive material damage.
In Burkina Faso, more than 1,400 kilometers from Senegal, these socio-political turmoil leave few observers indifferent.
In fact, the condemned opponent has always considered his legal troubles as a plot hatched by the head of state, Macky Sall, to disqualify him from the presidential election of 2024. Following his conviction, Ousmane’s party Sonko, the Pastef, had also called on the Senegalese to take to the streets to confront the regime of Macky Sall until obtaining the departure of the latter from the head of state. However, the Senegalese president, soon at the end of two terms at the head of his country, has so far maintained the vagueness on his intention or not to run for a third term deemed too much, “illegal” for some, “illegitimate” for others, the Senegalese Constitution having been revised in 2016, under the first term of Macky Sall, and the presidential lease reduced from 7 to 5 years renewable only once.
For many Burkinabés, the riots recorded in recent days in several localities in Senegal are immediately reminiscent of what the country of honest men has known almost similar: the popular uprising of October 2014. Karim Tiemtoré, computer scientist, remembers, indeed, that almost nine years ago, the same scenes of violence enamelled several cities of Burkina. And this, while the ex-president, Blaise Compaoré, after 27 years in power, tried to modify the Constitution which would have allowed him to run for a fifth term.
Beyond the case of Burkina Faso, the Senegalese riots plunge into memories of moments of socio-political instability in other countries on the continent. Karim Tiemtoré is thinking, for example, of the post-election violence of 2010 in Côte d’Ivoire, which he said started with the opposition between former President Laurent Gbagbo and current Alassane Ouattara.
Among the Burkinabés, many are those who make the link between the decision of the judicial fate of Ousmane Sonko and a desire of President Sall to reduce the chances of eligibility of the one who presents himself as his “most formidable opponent”. This is what a group of four civil society organizations read in a message published the day after the deadly violence in the streets of Senegal. This collective, of which the Balai Citoyen is a part – one of the organizations that was at the forefront of the insurrection against the power of Blaise Compaoré – has, in fact, condemned what it calls “Macky Sall’s destructive ambitions which lead Senegal in times of turmoil and instability”. It must be said that within Burkinabe civil society, analysts convinced of a bias in Senegalese justice are not the least numerous. The Coalition of Patriots of Burkina Faso (COPA-BF) is part of the lot. In a statement, this organization denounced “a blind will of Macky Sall to stay in power”, he who, still according to COPA-BF, “has allowed himself to be perverted by anti-democratic attitudes”.
The Burkinabe press does not fail to analyze and comment regularly on the political upheavals that the country of Teranga is going through, in particular the Sonko file. The majority of the Burkinabe media believe that “Senegal does not deserve this”. A sentence of the current mayor of Dakar, Barthélémy Dias, pronounced in a video following the violence of recent days and which had a snowball effect.
The analyzes of several newspapers agree on the fact that “nothing can justify” the latest and violent development of events in Senegal. It is so to say that, in a playful tone, an editorial writer for the daily L’Observateur paalga estimated that the late Senegalese president, Léopold Sédar Senghor, should come back from the dead, because his compatriots have “gone crazy”. “Crazy, says the newspaper, like Ousmane Sonko who defies the judicial institutions, to the point of walling himself in behind a “civil disobedience” to obey his political instinct […] Crazy like these intellectuals and other executives of political parties that incite hatred and violence, mad like those young people from the neighborhoods who attack public and private property without distinction […], finally mad, like President Macky Sall himself, inhabited by temptation of a problematic third term, which cultivates a culpable ambiguity about its relationship to the Constitution and remains caulked in a noisy silence…”
The most shared opinion of Burkinabés is that Senegal, once a reference in West Africa, especially French-speaking, in terms of democratic rooting and respect for the rules of alternation, this country which could boast of having known the multi-party system even before independence, is finally a stronghold on the verge of falling into the lot of bad examples. Le Pays, a private Burkinabé daily, is betting that “the recent export of violence abroad, as observed near the consular services, will certainly contribute to tarnishing Senegal’s image. The Senegalese star which shone in the African firmament in many areas will therefore continue to fade and risks ceasing to be the guide for many countries on the continent”, predicts this private newspaper.
“A sad and unfortunate situation which has once again put African democracy to the test”, according to Dr. Arouna Louré, leader of the movement Les Révoltés, a civil society organization. “Our democracies in Africa are a utopia,” said Ismaël Drabo. This student adds that “if many African countries descend into violence because of politics, it is because most of their leaders make a mistake: that of believing themselves to be irreplaceable at the head of a State”. “We will never finish building a country. It is reasonable that after two terms, our Heads of State agree to give up their chair to someone else to continue the construction work,” advocates Karim Tiemtoré.
But what could be the right panacea for a way out of the crisis? For Burkinabés, particularly within civil society organizations, it is believed that a way out of the crisis is unlikely without the involvement of the international community. “The best way for Senegal to get out of this crisis is for the two protagonists, Macky Sall and Ousmane Sonko, to talk to each other,” said student Ismaël Drabo. “They must put the interest of their country first,” argues Dr. Arouna Louré. Hamidou Zoundi believes that the key to the door that opens to peace is in the hands of Macky Sall. The Paalga Observer also puts forward this conviction by writing that “a single word [from the Head of State] would have been enough, if not to protect Senegal from the turmoil, at least to minimize the social and political storm which threatens the stability of the whole nation”. Hamidou Zoundi, he believes that “Senegalese justice has a role to play in appeasement, by reconsidering the verdict against the opponent”.
But while waiting for a way out of the crisis, questions are tormenting the minds of Burkinabe public opinion: who, Macky Sall or Ousmane Sonko, will take responsibility for the dead? Which of the two will be blamed for the extensive property damage? What will finally be done with the verdict pronounced against the Casamançais who does not seem ready to stay in prison? What will happen if the opponent were to be forced to serve their sentence there? Would Macky Sall, in this case, have the free rein to pronounce a presidential pardon in favor of his political rival?