Deadly riots erupt after jail sentence on leader

Ransacked shops and streets filled with rubble greeted residents of Dakar neighbourhoods yesterday – a fallout from clashes between anti-government protesters and police that have gripped Senegal in recent days.

Most of the capital seemed quiet yesterday, but tensions were running high after two days of violent unrest in several cities, which led to the deaths of at least 15 people, wreaked untold damage, and alarmed Senegal’s neighbours and allies.

The riots started over the conviction on Thursday of populist opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, who received a two-year prison sentence for “corrupting youth” – a verdict that may disqualify him from contesting next year’s presidential election. Crowds took to the streets, setting vehicles alight and throwing rocks at security forces as they heeded his party’s call to stand up to the authorities.

Mobs smashed windows and looted at least two petrol stations in Dakar’s Ouakam and Ngor districts, while an Auchan supermarket in densely populated Grand Yoff was torched and ransacked. Rubble littered the roads that were scarred black by fires.