Is the unrest in Senegal at risk of escalating? | Inside Story

it's been a beacon of stability for more than a decade but senegal has seen days of unrest and violence it was sparked by the arrest of a popular opposition leader so how will the government contain this growing anger this is inside story [Music] hello and welcome to the program i'm peter dobby senegal is one of the most stable and democratic countries in west africa but days of violent protests in the capital dhaka are causing concern about a possible escalation at least 10 people have been killed in what's been described as the worst unrest in nearly a decade the anger began after the detention of a prominent opposition leader on rape charges it soon spread to broader grievances including high unemployment and government corruption usman songko has denied the rape accusation and says the charge is politically motivated the opposition leader is widely seen as president mackie sal's main challenger in the 2024 elections he was released on bail on monday and called on his supporters to continue peaceful protests well we'll hear from usmansonko in a moment first president maki sal addressed the nation on monday here's some of what he had to say we have to show our differences in a way other than destructive violence because whatever our political choices we are a single family and none of us can have a separate destiny from that of the senegalese nation our individual and collective work orders us to work together consolidating the fundamentals and not destroying them nothing is more important than the preservation of keeping the soul of the senegalese nation this mobilization must be maintained it must even be much larger but it must above all be peaceful it must be peaceful today the people have regained the right that maki sal confiscated nine years ago at the demonstration the people have taken it back by force we must not lose this right so who is usman songko well formerly he's a tax inspector who founded his own political party in 2014 he rose to prominence after releasing documents he said exposed political corruption and machisal's governing alliance songko has drawn support from young voters and finished third in the 2019 presidential election with a little more than 15 percent and he's criticized senegal's relationship with his former colonial ruler france and he's hinted he wants to examine the tax benefits given to foreign companies al jazeera's nicholas huck has been following this story all week he has us this update from dhaka despite calls for calm and unity by president mike the movement for the protection of democracy a coalition of actors from civil rights groups civil society activists and the opposition are calling for more protest and it seems that one week after usmansanko was detained those demonstrations are spiraling out of control beyond the capital dakar in several cities throughout the country many young disenfranchised people taking to the streets looting specifically french supermarkets and gas stations because they accuse president makisel of protecting big business interests and big corporations playing in the hands of france to former colonial power instead of protecting the the the young and the poor president mike style says he's heard this call he's appealing to try to resolve those deep grievances he says those are due to the coronavirus pandemic and the fallout the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic is actually called for debt relief in order to tackle the economic crisis meanwhile usmansanko says this is the beginning of a movement of what he calls a revolution ahead of the presidential election of 2024 but we suspect more protests to come in the days to come nicholas hawke al jazeera for inside story okay let's get going let's bring in our guests today joining us all from the senegalese capital dakar we have aminata toure formerly a prime minister of senegal yasin fal an economist and founding member of the movement for the defense of democracy and usman diallo francophone west africa researcher at amnesty international a warm welcome to you all yazin fowl from the opposition's stance this country senegal used to be the high water mark of stable democracy in west africa what changed and why what changed is the fact that we are really in a in other crossroads we are at the crossroads because we have acquired now a president who is who is trying to set the stage to have a third uh presidency this is for 20 the elections are in 2024 but the president has repeatedly said that he will reduce opposition to its minimum level of existence the president has had also a practice of regularly and this is the third time undermining its major opponent using the courts to the point where that opponent is not able to run for elections the third thing is we have seen a situation of really you know political uh harassment of civil society of us activists and of political leaders we have also seen a high reduction of liberties because before you know we have we were allowed to you know demonstrate peacefully in in the streets this president was able to be elected because there was a big social movement against uh to who was and and that social movement was given the the enabling conditions to to demonstrate to to to to to really i mean even almost invade the parliament when applied but was trying to vote himself into a third term okay i'm going to yes just let me put those points to amanatatoure the former prime minister uh mre uh as a journal of record what yasin foul is saying there is factually correct the three significant opposition leaders who have stood against the incumbent recently have all been in effect airbrushed out of the process by a use by somebody or some people of the legal system well let me just uh maybe speak to the to the situation right now and uh you know my great thing also to to yasin who is a an activist and a great woman right defender and rights defender um i do think that the situation as we speak um i mean is is is concerning that for sure if we see what happened senegal as you said is known as you know a good great example in africa of stable democracy so how did we get how did we get here so i think it's a it's a it's a it's a very important question uh obviously and i've have said that when i was in position in governmental position um the issue of third term is way behind us i mean this is something that we don't expect anybody to to discuss about for me it is very very clear i i said it several times um and the president himself said it in the past so i expect that in 2024 um you know we will have a a an election without the current president that so that's my hope um but what happened is that uh for a year a covet impacted um year you know the economy of the country um you know took a terrible hit and as you know we do have an economy that is 80 percent informal and that's where usually the young people um you know get some earnings um being in shops in small trading and for a year of curfew um of course they got terribly impacted okay some of them tried to join europe um you know 500 people died so this added to the frustration of um not being sure about um the democratic future that for sure okay we will return to kovid i'm sure in the next 30 minutes or so osmond diallo from a human rights point of view amnesty is saying it is troubled by what's going on in senegal that's an understatement shortly because it's not just happening in dakar it is happening in other locations as well it is happening nationwide indeed and as of today we have uh uh seen that 12 people lost their lives in the context of the protest since last wednesday when the opposition leader usman samko was arrested but this is not the only uh the human rights violations that we have documented we have documented also uh attacks against press freedom such as the suspension for 72 hours of uh two tv stations that were commenting live the protest on wednesday and thursday and also a disruption to internet access and uh to uh to social messaging apps on friday uh that was documented by uh internet activists such as netblocks consortium so those are all very concerning in senegal especially in the current context when as rightly pointed out by uh my two co-panelists the question of the third term candidacy that has been alleged to be a project by the incumbent president has been hovering over the scene in the political arena and rightfully we are calling for the government to launch investigations uh into the circumstances in which 12 people lost their lives we have seen that many of them lost their lives when security forces used little force while policing the protest which is also very concerning and we are uh calling naturally all parties to restaurant in the current context of covet 19. but as said by uh the former minister uh aminata toy i think the kovite 19 uh has been uh has taken a very big [ __ ] on the informal sector and this is the protests are not only due to the arrest of the opposition leader but there has been a lingering uh underlying discussion in senegal about the impact of the kavit 19 about the necessity of some of the measures that were taken by the government to complain right okay just let me go us main just let me go to yassin foul for the opposition again mr sonko has a reputation of being able to galvanize the young given that the president is showing no sign of backing down is it wise of him to carry on trying to do that particularly seeing as how the elections are in theory a relatively long way away 2024. well right now i think that uh mr sanko we have presented a platform of our you know what we are demanding the government to do we are i mean yes it is of course i think that the kovic 19 is is one of the factors but before the covet 19 there was a very high level of increased poverty in senegal increased economic discrimination and increase marginalization of the poor this is the fact because we have seen uh you know floods uh in the summer huge floods in the summer the government the president himself took long time as usually it had been a long several several days and weeks before he went to visit families who have lost everything and we we saw also the hundreds of young people who have been uh you know who died in the in the ocean or in the desert trying to get out uh to look for another you know i mean possible el dorado but also the government the president was silent on that he didn't even give you know i mean one day over of you know for the further death to you know really recognize that and pay respect so i think this there has been a a series of factors that have been incredibly increased violation of economic and social rights being access to water being the the land grabbing that has involved rich people that have also import people you know related to the government but also i think that what we hear young people saying is that young people are placing a lot of hope in the political agenda and the economic proposals that mr sunko is proposing to them no one can deny that no one can just say that this is simply about poverty because we have had several situations in senegal a way you know we have seen really increased poverty increase social marginalization understood osmond diallo you've already touched on this point osman uh it's not just about covid19 is it it's also about the covid curfew that they put in place telling people they had to be off the streets by 9 pm it's about the tax breaks to french companies like total and ocean it's about tax breaks to the chinese the chinese government is in a hole to senegal worth 1.6 billion dollars and yet people are still living in poverty so the economy is doing well on the one hand but people aren't seeing the benefits of that on the other hand yes that is exactly as a point because many of the urbanized uh population in senegal do not see the benefits of the economic growth of the last few years yesterday one of the protesters gave a very eloquent and insightful speech about his reasons to protest he said basically that he is a graduate of the university uh but the promises of social mobility that existed some decades ago in senegal when people went through the education system and got a higher higher higher university diplomas do not exist anymore and so he said he what he basically said is that after i got my high school degree i tried to get into a a training school but i did not have any means in order to pay my fees and that's why i'm demonstrating and i think that this course is very uh relevant to for rings about in many quarters in senegal we see many people uh that sees the economic growth and the growing disparity between the have and the have not in senegal and the fact that they have a master's degree uh bachelor degrees in a very uh uh important uh academic disciplines but they cannot have uh jobs that could give them a different living standard in senegal and that is a very concerning issue and i think yesterday the president in his speech in which he said that he was going to uh uh to edit the timing of the curfew which will not start anymore at 9pm but at midnight and at 5pm but a lot of emphasis on the social programs that he enacted over the first few years such as the foreigner which has been very much criticized for not reaching the right targets okay just let me move the conversation on osman diallo uh let's go back to yaseen fowl mr songko is undoubtedly a populist his movement is populist but he has to go beyond that surely he has to come up with policies so what are his actual policies to get the country turned around economically i i do not agree with you know this name of populist populace i think mr sunko has has written two books one of the books is called solutions in which he's laying out how really a progressive economic agenda can really re you know develop senegal but also in a in the development that is that that has growth but distributive growth that would enable really you know a social infrastructure to be built but that will enable a domestic private sector to thrive that will also enable partnership with you know countries and the development agencies and international private sector that is really respected respect irrespective of the rights of the senegalese but they will put the interest of senegalese citizens first so i think he has written also another book about you know really natural resources in particular all of the natural resources oil and and the rest and how you know this natural resource in which senegal is endowed could really help us put us apart in a past already in immigrating economy so so so yes uh maybe because you read english but you could share with you we have developed a program that is a program that is really thorough during the elections that was budgeted for the first time here was a a development program by a candidate that has completely explained how it's going to run we're going to put the country back to to its feet but it's also you know not beyond that put it you know in a development place okay as far as maki sal is concerned can he continue to underpin his existence as the incumbent by this idea that he may want to reheat the idea of going for a third term he he went there in 2016 it wasn't received very well and we don't have any guarantees that he won't try it again well let me tell you that i'm not speaking on his behalf to begin with i said that my hope is he's not that he's he's not going to run he doesn't have to run he has to do his third term and terminate this one in peace and make sure that he take into consideration the demand from the youth because i think that's the challenge that we are facing and take sound economical economic policies to that will generate jobs because one of the uh the desperation of young people taking the sea or taking the streets is that they don't have jobs even though some of them might be um very educated that's that's the bottom line that's what he has to to to solve and by making sure that he can um support and and promote national production senegal is still dependent in many ways and that we have to make sure that we industrialize the country that you can generate jobs that you add value to natural resources especially agriculture i think these are you know the the challenges that he faced and he has to find sound solution with good expertise which is another another challenge that he faces and he has to make sure that in the coming days or the coming weeks that he comes with a team that is able to show a sound program that will address the needs of young people not globally not only in talks but with concrete programs at the field level you're gonna ask me where he gonna find the money i think he has to look into his budget and cut all the luxury and the you know expenditures and reallocate them to programs that are sound and that are job creating um programs for young people so it is time for him for the three years left for him uh to sort of give a clear answer to young people okay but in just let me just let me as we head towards the end of the program amenity just let me go back to usmandialo when it comes to people stepping back from where we are at the moment there are voices in dakar saying that the entire country is on the precipice of something much more dangerous than we've seen so far few voices are saying let's take the temperature out of it one of the voices is the muslim brotherhood but nobody's listening yet in the opinion of amnesty why is that so uh on this topic i think this is beyond the mandate of amnesty international but just to to give you a few points i think you're absolutely right uh the number of uh casualties little casualties that we have seen over the past few days is almost equal to the number of casualties we have witnessed during the anti-certain protest of 2011 and 2012. so in a span of five days we have seen as much casualties as much people dying during the process as people died between june 2011 and february 2012 and that has scared a lot of people and we have seen a lot of mediations by civil society members but also by members of the religious brotherhoods in senegal who have mediated between already uh before the arrest of usmansonko on wednesday yes but also since then since this weekend and i think it is due to this pressure that uh all both parties as much as usman songhu as president makisol uh made public speech yesterday calling for restraint and announcement i'm going to pause you there for which i apologize the last 30 seconds of the program to you yaseen fall super briefly the military are on the streets as we are having this conversation on the streets up to and around the presidential palace is that the reality the president still thinks what we're seeing right now in real time may go either way well we are very concerned because we think that you know um senegal should not be and cannot be ruled by armed forces by by by you know forces and and the president is saying something in one when one way after last night but by what we are seeing in terms of really bringing the amphors like we are at war while young people are protesting for their right to live decent lives and have employment and decent employment there is a big discrepancy so we are concerned we and the united nations and echoers have both won the government to allow people to do demonstrations peacefully and to follow the rule of law okay we have to wrap up our conversation on that thought-provoking point thank you to our guests they were amanda torre osmond diallo and yasin phal and thank you too for your company you can see the show again via the website aljazeera.com and for more discussion go to our facebook page facebook.com forward slash aj inside story you can also join the conversation of course on twitter our handle is at aj inside story from me peter dobby and everyone on the team here in doha thanks for watching i will see you very soon for the moment

Channel: Al Jazeera English

Views: 93,154

Keywords: antoine félix diome, senegal security forces, ousmane sonko, the movement to protect democracy, aljazeera, senegal unrest, aljazeera english, patriots of senegal for ethics work and fraternity, africanews, al jazeera english, dakar, senegal clashes, politics & law, aljazeera live, senegal interior minister, senegal president, africa, al jazeera, macky sall, senegal police, senegal protests, senegal opposition, aljazeera news, senegal violence

Id: g3n6VTIS9t4

Length: 25min 0sec (1500 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 09 2021