The uprisings in Senegal reinforce the instability of the southern Mediterranean border
What's happening in Senegal. Enrico Martial's article
Violent protests have been underway in Senegal since Wednesday, March 3, which have a double significance: due to the risk of extending the Sahel crisis area to the Atlantic and due to the strengthening of an instability, it feeds migratory pressures towards the Mediterranean and the 'Europe.
The clashes, which have resulted in five deaths so far, arose after the controversial arrest (for sexual offenses) of Ousmane Sonko, a member of the opposition and potential candidate in the presidential elections of 2024. Placed in a neo-nationalist and anti-system position, at times approached to forms of religious radicalism (in his youth he was enrolled in an organization close to the Muslim Brotherhood, now he is accused of some sympathy with Salafism) or populist (like an "African Trump, but young"), he was a catalyst for discontent and rages that have grown in urban populations in recent years due to economic difficulties, then aggravated by the pandemic.
Ousmane Sonko addresses a middle class of young people who have studied but are unemployed or from precarious jobs, even emigrants in the European "diaspora", pointing to government favoritism for foreign companies, and in particular French. Thus, in the looting, the Auchan chain and the radio of Youssoun d'Nour, well-known singer and minister-adviser to the president in office, Macky Sall, were targeted. Less in the countryside, the uprising touched other centers such as Kaolack, Kolda, Nioro or Diaobé, in the south of the country, where a student died on 6 March. Internet was limited, two television stations suspended until Sunday evening, Air France offices closed and the Dakar-New York flight on Monday 8 March canceled. International organizations, from the United Nations to ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West African States) have called for calm, underlining on the one hand that the right to express oneself must be respected (with a public hand capable of not generating further violence) and reaffirming that demonstrations must remain peaceful.
A few days after the protests in Niger , which contested the results of the presidential elections at the end of February, the riots in Senegal are added to the worsening of the Sahel crisis (in Mali there are 2 million displaced persons), which on the one hand favors trafficking illegal and the trafficking of people to the Mediterranean and on the other hand facilitates the taking of the jihadist message on territories and population groups.
Attempts to contain the jihadist phenomenon have involved – net of the UN commitment with MINUSMA and the European training of EUTM Mali and Niger and EUCAP Sahel – a French military effort with the Barkhane operation (increased to 5100 men, but with US assistance for information) to which are added both the first military Europeanization exercises in the Takuba Task Force which begins to be active this year, and the bilateral initiatives (Italy with Niger for example, in the MISIN initiative).
Senegal is considered relatively protected by its moderate Islamism, Sufism, with respected leaders and rather aligned with the governments in office. However, over the years the opportunities for spreading the Salafist message have grown, also through the internet, aimed at the same population – young and relatively educated – of reference as Ousmane Sonko. In addition, an Al Qaeda-affiliated cell was dismantled between 20 and 23 January 2021, in Kidira, near the border and on the axis between the two capitals of Mali and Senegal, Bamako and Dakar.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/le-rivolte-in-senegal-rafforzano-linstabilita-della-frontiera-sud-del-mediterraneo/ on Mon, 08 Mar 2021 08:59:57 +0000.