#FreeSenegal
About
What is happening in Senegal?
2023TW// Violence, death, police brutalityHere we are again, two years later, with a situation that keeps worsening.On June 1st, 2023, opposition leader Ousmane Sonko was found not guilty of the rape accusations and guilty of "corrupting youth". He has been sentenced to two years in jail, rendering him ineligible for Senegal's upcoming presidential elections in 2024.Chaos has erupted in the city, with protesters taking to the streets and facing all kinds of police brutality. Real bullets and tear-gas have been fired at them, tear-gas canisters have been shot at people inside their homes, and some, considered suspicious and having the misfortune of being in the streets at the wrong time, have been beaten by the police. Armed militia have also been exacting acts of violence under the complicit gaze of police, and the situation will be rapidly escalating when Sonko gets officially arrested.As a result, nine (9) people have died on June 1, 2023.Official and university buildings have been burned, grocery stores and supermarkets looted, in a violent culmination of the poverty and hardships that Senegalese people have been facing for years.On Thursday evening, social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Telegram have been banned by the government, which they admitted to have done to avoid "hate incentive". Read here that it's yet another attempt at controlling the narrative and cutting us from the rest of the world. Now, the most common VPN apps have also been blacklisted, and a total blockade of our internet connection might be imminent.This is where you come in. Please scroll through the #FreeSenegal hashtag on Twitter, and retweet as much as possible (while being mindful of the triggering content). If you don't, we will be silenced and at the mercy of a regime that will stop at nothing to tame us into submission.Donation links will be shared soon after they've been set up and verified. Watch this space, and please share if you can't donate!
#FreeSenegal 2021:
Videos & pictures.
Ways to Help
Donation Links:
Coming soon.
Email templates:
To be sent to international orgs like the UN, UNESCO etc., in French and English.
Another way of helping would be perusing the tweets under the hashtag #FreeSenegal (while being mindful of the triggering content) and boosting as much as you can. Please educate yourself about this matter, and it would also be great if you made your own Tweets using the hashtag.
Resources
#FreeSenegal explained:
Twitter accounts to follow for updates & boost:
In English, French and Wolof.
Discord Server
2021
Senegal, a French-speaking country in West Africa, is suffering from a political crisis that erupted after the arrest of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, following an alleged rape accusation that might politically motivated.Since March 4, 2021, Senegalese people have been protesting for their rights and the blatant violation of democracy. More than ten people have died during the protests because of police brutality, and a private militia has taken to the streets of Dakar—the capital—to shoot real bullets at unarmed civilians.This case is all the more outrageous as government representatives have been labelling the protestors as "terrorists" and saying during interviews with international media that the situation was back to normal and "under control", even though protests were happening every day in various parts of the country.Social media and live radio channels have been censored, and Senegalese people are doing their best to make themselves heard, above all the repression and violence, with the hashtag #FreeSenegalThese protests are not about rape—but the culmination of frustrations built up against the current regime.
Senegalese people are asking for justice to be done.Let them be heard.
#FreeSenegal — Image courtesy of @Looy graphic, @Leo Correa & @_djibawone on Twitter