Senegalese protesters March in demand for authorities to respect the election date.
Senegal’s embattled President Macky Sall announced on February 26 a general amnesty for all those who took part in political protests since 2021 during talks to set a new date for presidential polls that he postponed.
Senegal is witnessing its worst political crisis in decades after Sall abruptly announced the postponement of the February 25 presidential vote just hours before campaigning was due to begin.
“In a spirit of national reconciliation, I will put before the National Assembly this Wednesday in the council of ministers a bill for a general amnesty for acts relating to political demonstrations that took place between 2021 and 2024,” Sall said Monday.
Sall presented the amnesty move as a way of reuniting the country, following nationwide riots that have killed dozens in the past three years.
Several hundred opposition members, or over 1,000 according to some rights groups, have been arrested since 2021 amid the face-off between opposition figure, Ousmane Sonko, and the president.
Sonko and his party’s substitute candidate, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, remain in prison for charges that the opposition claims are trumped up.
