Headline

Dakar University Campus Turned Battlefield As Crisis Errupted In Senegal Over Jail Of Opposition Leader

Published

2 years ago

June 1, 2023

Violence erupted in Senegal’s capital Dakar on Thursday after a court sentenced firebrand opposition leader Ousmane Sonko to two years’ jail for “corrupting youth,” a move that darkens his hopes of contesting presidential elections next year.

Sonko, President Macky Sall’s fiercest opponent, was absent when the judgment was handed down. He also did not attend the trial.

He was presumed to be at his Dakar home, where he had been blocked in by security forces after being detained at the weekend.

But after two years of a confrontation with the authorities that has kept the country on tenterhooks, he could now be arrested “at any time”, Justice Minister Ismaila Madior Fall told journalists.

The university campus in the centre of Dakar looked like a battlefield.

Clashes broke out with groups of young people pelting police in riot gear with stones. Police fired back with tear gas.

Several buses from the faculty of medicine, the history department and the country’s leading school of journalism were set on fire and offices ransacked. Classes were suspended until further notice.

Elsewhere, young people attacked a transport ticket office and other public property in parts of the city, burning tyres and placing obstacles in the streets, an AFP photographer saw.

Images of unrest elsewhere in the country circulated on social networks.

Apart from these outbreaks of violence, the streets of Dakar were virtually deserted, an unusual sight in a teeming metropolis.

Trouble was reported elsewhere in the country, in Casamance in the south, Mbour and Kaolack in the west and Saint-Louis in the north.

Satire Mbaye, a presidential party official in the Dakar suburb of Keur Massar, said the party headquarters had been “ransacked.”

“They broke the windows and destroyed the equipment inside”, she said. “They asked where was the house of Assome Diatta, the party’s local leader”.

The motorway leading to the airport was cut off by demonstrators, according to local media, while a commuter train connecting the new city of Diamniadio to the capital halted service.

– Election bid –

The violence came hours after the Dakar criminal court ruling against Sonko. The two-year-old case has deeply divided the West African state, sparking sporadic but deadly clashes that have battered the country’s image of stability.

Attention has focused on whether a conviction would prevent Sonko, 48-year-old head of the PASTEF-Patriots party, from contesting next year’s vote.

The court convicted him of “corrupting youth”, which consists of encouraging the “debauchery” of a young person under the age of 21.

But it acquitted him on charges of rape and issuing death threats.

The complainant, Adji Sarr, a former employee of the beauty salon where Sonko used to get massages, was under 21 at the time of the events.

She has been threatened, insulted and placed under police protection since the scandal broke two years ago.

During proceedings, Sarr said Sonko had abused her on five occasions between late 2020 and early 2021.

Sonko has maintained his innocence and claims the president is manipulating the judiciary to torpedo his political career — a charge the government denies.

“This verdict on command is the final stage in the plot hatched by Macky Sall and his henchmen”, said Sonko’s party in a press release.

It called on the Senegalese people to “take to the streets” and on the police to join them.

Ndeye Khady Ndiaye, the owner of the salon, was also sentenced to two years in prison for incitement to debauchery, but acquitted of complicity in rape.

She and Sonko must each pay a fine of 600,000 CFA francs ($980) and jointly pay 20 million CFA francs ($33,000) in damages to the complainant.

“We are satisfied of Sonko’s guilt”, El Hadji Diouf, Adji Sarr’s lawyer, told reporters.

But 20 million CFA francs in damages is little for the “suffering” Sarr has endured, he said.

The ruling appears to threaten the politician’s eligibility for next year’s presidential election under the electoral code.

One of his lawyers, Djiby Diagne, said “Ousmane Sonko’s candidacy is in jeopardy.”

The court did not rule on whether he should be arrested.

“The decision to arrest him or not depends on the public prosecutor,” Diagne said.

“Let all Senegalese know: Ousmane Sonko can no longer be a candidate”, said another of his lawyers, Bamba Cisse.

– Divided country –

A former civil servant, Sonko rose to prominence in presidential elections in 2019, where he came in third after a campaign that dealt verbal blows to Sall and the country’s ruling elite.

Sonko portrays Sall as corrupt and a would-be dictator, while the president’s supporters call him a rabble-rouser who has sown instability.

His initial arrest on rape charges in 2021 sparked several days of clashes that left at least 12 people dead.

Sonko’s electoral eligibility was already overshadowed by an earlier court battle.

He was handed six-month suspended prison sentence this year for defamation against a minister.

Headline

Court Jails Two For Targeting President With Sorcery

Published

14 hours ago

September 15, 2025

Editor

A Zambian court on Monday sentenced two men to two years in prison with hard labour on charges of attempting to use witchcraft to kill the country’s president.

Mozambican national Jasten Mabulesse Candunde and Zambian village chief Leonard Phiri were arrested in December in possession of charms, including a live chameleon.

Police said they planned to use the charms to harm President Hakainde Hichilema, and they were charged with professing knowledge of witchcraft and possession of charms.

“The motive of the crime was to kill the head of state,” magistrate Fine Mayambu ruled in the capital Lusaka on Monday.

“The convicts were not only enemies of the head of state but all Zambians. I therefore sentence them to 24 months imprisonment with hard labour from the date of their arrest,” he said.

The prosecution said the men had been hired by the brother of opposition MP Emmanuel “Jay Jay” Banda, who is facing trial for robbery, attempted murder and escaping custody.

Headline

Two Nigerians Face Jail Terms In Liberia’s Piracy Trial

Published

14 hours ago

September 15, 2025

Editor

Criminal Court ‘D’ in Monrovia is set to deliver judgment this week in Liberia’s first piracy trial, involving two Nigerian nationals accused of hijacking a cargo vessel in the Gulf of Guinea.

According to court records, the defendants were arrested earlier this year after a Liberia-flagged ship was seized by armed men while transporting goods through international waters. The crew sent a distress signal, prompting international maritime forces to intervene.

The suspects were subsequently transferred to Liberian authorities under global maritime cooperation protocols.

According to Liberia’s news platform, Front Page Africa, the case has attracted attention because Liberia maintains one of the world’s largest open ship registries, yet prosecutions for piracy within its domestic courts have not previously occurred. Under international law, Liberia holds jurisdiction over crimes involving ships registered under its flag.

On Monday, proceedings took a new turn when defense lawyer, Cllr. Bestman Juah, informed the court that the defendants had admitted responsibility for the hijacking and were requesting a plea-bargain arrangement. State prosecutors did not oppose the request, leaving open the possibility of reduced sentences in exchange for full cooperation.

Resident Judge Mameita Jabateh-Sirleaf, who presides over Criminal Court ‘D’, will rule on whether to accept the plea deal and determine the sentencing framework. The ruling could also address deportation measures following imprisonment.

Criminal Court ‘D’ handles cases involving armed robbery, terrorism, hijacking, and other serious crimes, and the piracy trial represents a growing trend of transnational offenses being prosecuted within Liberia’s judicial system.
As of press time, the court has not announced the date for sentencing.

Headline

Spain Cancels $825m Israel Arms Deal Over Gaza

Published

14 hours ago

September 15, 2025

Editor

The Spanish government has cancelled a contract worth nearly 700 million euros ($825 million) for Israeli-designed rocket launchers.

The move comes after Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced last week that his government would “consolidate in law” a ban on military equipment sales or purchases with Israel over its offensive in Gaza.

The contract, awarded to a consortium of Spanish companies, involved the purchase of 12 SILAM rocket launcher systems derived from the PULS platform made by Israeli firm Elbit Systems, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Military Balance.

First reported by local media and the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the cancellation was formalised on Spain’s official public contracts platform on September 9.

The following day, Sanchez unveiled measures aimed at stopping what his leftist government called “the genocide in Gaza”.

It includes the approval of a decree imposing a ban on military equipment sales or purchases with Israel due to its military offensive in Gaza, launched after the Hamas attacks in October 2023.

Spain applied the ban as Israel stepped up its military onslaught.

Spain has also formalized the cancellation of another contract for 168 anti-tank missile launchers, which were to be manufactured under license from an Israeli company.

That contract, valued at 287 million euros, had been first reported by the press in June.

According to Spanish daily La Vanguardia, the government is undertaking a broader review to phase out Israeli weapons and technology from its armed forces.

Sanchez has emerged as one of Europe’s most outspoken critics of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Gaza policy.

Relations between the two countries have been tense for months.

Israel has not had an ambassador in Spain since Madrid recognized the state of Palestine in 2024.

Last week, Spain recalled its ambassador to Israel after heated exchanges over Sánchez’s new measures.

The Barcelona-based Delas Centre, a security research institute, estimated in April that since the start of the Gaza war, Spain had awarded 46 contracts worth $1.044 billion to Israeli companies, based on public tender data.