DAKAR, Senegal
Dozens of protesters clashed with police in Senegal's capital Dakar on Monday after lawmakers were blocked from visiting the home of a prominent opposition politician on trial for separate charges of rape and libel.
Police fired tear gas at
groups of demonstrators who built makeshift barricades along one of Dakar's
main highways. In one neighborhood, cars were gutted by fire and a ministerial
building was set alight.
It is the latest round of
months of unrest triggered by President Macky Sall's refusal to rule out
running for a third term in office and by court cases involving a leading
rival, Ousmane Sonko, who denies wrongdoing and says the charges are aimed at
ruling him out of presidential elections next February.
Police escorted Sonko to his
house on Sunday after a caravan of vehicles including he and some supporters
had planned to enter Dakar.
"Sonko can't leave his
house... No-one can go see him, but why? Where is this democracy?" said El
Malick Ndiaye, a spokesman for Sonko's Pastef party.
The police and Sall's office
did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.
Senegal is seen as one of West
Africa's strongest democracies, and it has a two-term limit for presidents. But
critics of Sall worry that he will use a change in the constitution in 2016 as
an excuse to reset his mandate and run again, as other long-standing rulers in
the region have done.
Sonko has strong support among
young people, but his degrading comments last week about a woman who accused
him of rape in a massage parlor in 2021 sparked backlash from Senegalese
women's groups and dozens of well-known figures.
Last week, a prosecutor in
Sonko's trial requested a 10-year prison sentence.
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