Violent clashes for the removal of the opposition leader, there are victims

In Senegal, at least nine people were killed in violence that erupted yesterday after opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, a presidential candidate, was sentenced to two years in prison and threatened with ineligibility.

Riots broke out in the capital and in several other cities of the country even before the settlement. The University of Dakar has taken on the appearance of a battlefield. Groups of young people threw stones at the police, who responded with tear gas.

Several buses from the Faculty of Medicine, the Department of History and the main journalism school in Senegal were burned and offices ransacked. This was announced by the Minister of the Interior, Antoine Diome.

"We have observed with regret the violence that has led to the destruction of public and private property and, unfortunately, we had nine deaths in Dakar and Ziguinchor," the minister said on national television.

Diome also confirmed that the authorities have restricted access to social networks in the country, as observed for example for Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter.

"Considering the spread of hateful and subversive messages on social media, the state of Senegal has decided with all its sovereignty to temporarily suspend the use of some digital applications," the minister said, appealing for calm.