Clashes between law enforcement and supporters of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko have left at least 23 people dead across the country, including five in the main city of the Casamance region.
“The bullet found him at home.” These are the delicate words of a man who chose to take refuge behind the fatality to recount the drama that unfolded on June 4, the night that his friend died, alone, in the darkness of his room. He received “a stray bullet” in the back, according to neighbors. Some people in Ziguinchor, located in the south of Senegal, even believe that Mamadou Tall, 44, was shot while praying. “Nobody knows what he was doing,” said his close friend, who requested to remain anonymous. “What’s certain is that he was at home.”
There’s a hole in the metal shutter outside his little house in the Néma 2 district. Inside the bleak, two-room home, without any light, the concrete floor was stained with dried blood, blackened in certain spots by the Casamance heat. Nothing had been touched since that fateful night: His mattress, his flip-flops, his clothes tossed on top of a pink suitcase, his cigarette butts, his jakarta (the nickname for motorcycle cabs) and his telephones were all still there.
Clashes with the Senegalese police began on June 1, just after Ousmane Sonko, the mayor of Ziguinchor, was sentenced to two years in prison for “corruption of youth” (Sonko, tried in absentia, was acquitted of charges of rape and death threats brought against him by Adji Sarr, a massage parlor employee who was 20 years old at the time of the events, between December 2020 and February 2021). As for Tall, he did not join the riots. “He was a hard worker who rode his scooter day and night,” his friend said. “He wasn’t political, or pro-Sonko.”
As such, he did not take part in protesting the sentence, which will prevent Sonko, the president of the party known as the Patriotes du Sénégal pour le Travail, l’Ethique et la Fraternité (PASTEF, or African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity), from running in the February 2024 presidential election. The head of state, Macky Sall, remains ambiguous as to whether he will run for a third term, which many consider to be unconstitutional.
‘I’ve never seen such violence’
What exactly happened on June 4? On the fourth day of violence, local residents recall a “hot” evening during which police – in plain clothes and in uniform –”fired more live bullets than tear gas.” “The people are a firing range,” said a man in his 20s. At around 9 pm, the crowd of young people and the police had been facing off for some time, first around Castor, a nearby neighborhood, and then in Néma 2. Those who witnessed the suppression of the demonstrations described tear gas being thrown at the base of houses, the fumes coating the hot air in living rooms, bedrooms and kitchens. “My young children fainted,” said one mother.
An hour later, the neighborhood heard gunshots again: A crowd of young people, near Tall’s house, was dispersed by the police. It was at that moment that Tall was hit in the back by “a medium-distance shot,” “from a small-caliber bullet (4.5 mm-5.5 mm),” but “it could have been two bullets, one having gone through, the other having remained under the skin,” according to the autopsy report. “It wasn’t a stray bullet as far as I’m concerned. Why target homes?” his friend added. Tall first came to Ziguinchor in 2017 to find work. He was buried in the village of Podor, in the north near the Mauritanian border, where his wife and two young children live.
According to Amnesty International, at least 23 people died across the country during the four days of rioting. Five died in Ziguinchor and a sixth in Cap Skirring, a seaside resort in Casamance. “There were also 11 bullet wounds,” said Bassirou Coly, deputy mayor in charge of the youth. “I’ve never seen such violence.” That same word has been used again and again by those who witnessed the clashes.
“The police intended to kill the demonstrators, these are murders,” said Mohamed Sano, the uncle of one of the victims, Souleymane Sano. A 25-year-old metal carpenter, Sano lost his life late on June 2, near the CIA nightclub. According to a friend present at the scene, a policeman was lying on the floor, out of sight. “Souleymane, on the other hand, was not well hidden. That policeman took aim at him,” he said, fear in his eyes. He heard a noise that sounded like “tah” and wanted to escape, then turned around and saw his friend on the ground. “The police had already left,” he said. “We put him on a jakarta. With three of us on the bike, we took him to the Belfort free clinic, but it was closed. In fact, Souleymane was already dead.” According to his friends, Sano’s girlfriend is two months pregnant.
Stones versus tear gas grenades
Sano was buried amidst tear gas – a clash with the police took place during the funeral – on June 8 at the Belfort cemetery. Ousmane Badio, 17, was buried at the same place on the afternoon of June 10, a few hours after Sidiya Diatta, 31, was laid to rest in a village not far from Ziguinchor. Hundreds of people turned out, as for every ceremony. Badio, who was a mechanic’s apprentice, a motorcycle enthusiast and a fan of the Senegalese rapper BM Jaay, was the youngest of the “martyrs,” as his family and friends call him, as well as the first to fall.
Late in the afternoon on June 1, a few steps from his home in the Boucotte Korentas neighborhood, not far from a Total gas station, Badio was shot in the neck. Videos show the boy in agony. His friends described an outburst of violence involving stones versus tear gas grenades. “Once they ran out of gas, the police started firing live ammunition. Some officers aimed right at us,” said a friend of Badio’s. One of them even picked up a shell casing. They described using an iron door to protect themselves. “The policeman who killed Ousmane was put in an armored car, and they waited for reinforcements to get him out,” added another friend. “We’ll never find him.”
According to the authorities, the deaths of Mamadou Tall, Souleymane Sano, Ousmane Badio and Sidiya Diatta “resulted from violent death due to thoracic trauma caused by the impact of a firearm projectile.” Their death certificates all mention the same standard sentence. Amnesty International has called on “the authorities to conduct a credible, independent and impartial investigation into the circumstances of these deaths and to ensure that those responsible for unlawful killings are prosecuted in accordance with fair trial standards.” Many of the victims’ relatives, with whom Le Monde spoke, doubt that such an investigation will ever see the light of day.
The authorities declined to comment. “No statement to make,” said Guédji Diouf, the governor of Ziguinchor. Commissioner Chérif Malamine Mansaly confirmed that “judicial investigations are underway” but that “there is no proof that it was the police who fired the shots.”