DAKAR: Leading Senegalese opposition figure Ousmane Sonko on Monday was charged with fomenting insurrection and his party dissolved, stoking concerns about further unrest two months after fatal clashes.

Sonko, a presidential candidate and President Macky Sall’s fiercest critic, has faced a string of legal woes, which he claims have been designed to keep him out of politics.

His sentencing in absentia to two years in prison last month in a moral corruption case sparked clashes that left 16 dead according to the government, 24 according to Amnesty International, and 30 according to Sonko’s PASTEF party.

But he had not been jailed despite that sentencing.

On Friday he was arrested on new allegations tied to comments he has made, rallies he has held, and other episodes since 2021.

The new charges include undermining state security, criminal association with a terrorist body, disseminating false news and theft.

“I have just been unjustly placed in custody”, Sonko wrote on Facebook on Monday afternoon.

“If the Senegalese people, for whom I have always fought, abdicate and decide to leave me in the hands of Macky Sall’s regime, I will submit, as always, to divine will”, he said.

Less than two hours after Sonko’s indictment, the interior minister announced that PASTEF would be dissolved for having “frequently” called for insurrection, leading to destruction and the loss of life.

Senegal’s public prosecutor said Saturday that this new legal affair had “nothing to do” with the high-profile moral corruption case for which Sonko was sentenced on June 1.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2023