Ecowas president postpones Senegal visit as political crisis deepens
The head of the West African organisation Ecowas has postponed his visit to Dakar where he was due to meet President Macky Sall.
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Nigeria's president and head of Ecowas, Bola Tinubu, was due to meet Sall today, Monday.
No new date for the visit has been set at this stage, according to sources talking to RFI.
During the meeting, the Nigerian leader was expected to call on Sall to respect the constitution of his country and to avoid plunging Senegal into a sustained crisis.
This follows protests over the weekend against the postponement of the presidential elections that were due to take place at the end of this month.
Violent clashes with the police resulted in the death of three students in the capital Dakar, and in Ziguinchor in the southern region of Casamance, a stronghold of ex-Pastef leader Ousmane Sonko.
Senegalese voters also protested in European capitals over the weekend.
"The Senegalese took to the streets as they suffer terrible repression from the defence and security forces," Patrice Mendy, representing the Pastef party in France, told RFI.
"The Republic is in danger. This force must rise to establish order. They must serve the Republic, not serve a man or his regime."
Protesters vowed to continue their ongoing actions that left Dakar a virtual ghost town as schools and offices remained closed Monday morning.
The civil society group Aar Sunu Election ("Let's Protect Our Election") will also organise door to door events and caravans.
Further protests across Senegal are expected on Tuesday.
Call for sanctions
An NGO which groups together nearly a thousand civil society organisations in West Africa, the West African Civil Society Forum (Foscao), criticised Ecowas and the African Union after President Sall's decision to postpone the presidential elections.
In a press release, the Forum called on the two institutions to take a strong position against Macky Sall's decision.
The regional executive director of Foscao, Komlan Messié, told RFI that the credibility of the two organisations is at stake.
“We must say it - it is a constitutional coup d’état. It must be treated as such. This is why we are calling on Ecowas and the African Union to act quickly and use the same energy that they use to condemn military coups to condemn this coup,” he said.
No going back
Meanwhile, Sall defended his decision to postpone elections in an interview with Associated Press (AP), his first since announcing the postponment of the elections.
Sall brushed off allegations that the decision was unconstitutional and that he had created a constitutional crisis.
The country needs more time to resolve controversies over the disqualification of some candidates, he said in the interview.
In an exclusive interview #Senegal's president defends delaying elections as violent protests erupt nationwide. Sall brushed off accusations that the decision was unconstitutional but wouldn't say if he'd accept a court’s decision to reject the delay. https://t.co/d3zFwYZpBQ
— Sam Mednick (@sammednick) February 10, 2024
The European Union on Sunday urged Senegal's authorities to "guarantee fundamental freedoms".
(with newswires)
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