PH
Ousmane Sonko, the imprisoned Senegalese opposition leader, has finished his hunger strike, according to political allies who visited him.
Sonko, who believes his long-running legal battles are a ploy to keep him out of the presidential election in 2024, was hospitalized at the end of October after losing consciousness, according to his lawyers.
Members of his opponent’s camp claim he is now “in excellent shape” and in high spirits.
Sonko’s hunger strike has ended “for the time being,” according to a statement from MP Guy Marius Sagna to AFP.
In a Facebook post, Habib Sy, a member of Sonko’s political coalition, also acknowledged the strike’s end.
Last week, Senegal’s Supreme Court struck a new blow to Sonko’s presidential ambitions by retrialing the topic of whether the opposition figure may be included in the 2024 electoral lists.
A court in Ziguinchor, the southern city where Sonko is mayor, overturned his removal from the electoral roll last month, but the state appealed.
The Supreme Court did not set a retrial date, which might jeopardize Sonko’s presidential bid as he races against the clock to secure and file the requisite sponsorship papers.
His PASTEF party has bolstered their number two politician, Bassirou Diomaye Fay, as a prospective substitute, despite the fact that he is also imprisoned.
The party has spread a campaign slogan saying that “to sponsor Diomaye is to sponsor Sonko”, though Sagna said there was no change of course.
“Sonko remains our one and only candidate,” he said.
Over the last two and a half years, the 49-year-old political thorn in President Macky Sall’s side has suffered a slew of legal problems.
On June 1, he was found guilty in absentia of morally influencing a young person and sentenced to two years in prison, sparking the bloodiest riots in Senegal in years.
He was detained in July on additional counts, including inciting insurgency, criminally associating with a terrorist organization, and harming state security.
He has periodically been on hunger strikes since then.
He is especially popular with Senegalese under the age of 20, who account for half of the population, with his pan-Africanist rhetoric and stern stance on former colonial power France.
