Senegalese opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, who has been detained since late July on various charges, including incitement to insurrection, announced on Tuesday, October 17, that he is resuming his hunger strike, which he had suspended in early September.
Ousmane Sonko made this announcement via social media, stating that this is the only “means of resistance” available to him in his current situation. The hunger strike is intended to show his “solidarity” with all activists who have been “unjustly arrested for expressing their political views” and remain in detention today. Some are completely cut off from their families, he stated in a lengthy message posted on Twitter and Facebook.
The opposition politician and 2024 presidential candidate, incarcerated since late July, also wishes to protest against his “arbitrary and election-oriented detention,” as he phrased it, and “demand its end.” He also aims to protest against the incarceration of hundreds of members of his party.
Last Thursday, the Ziguinchor District Court in the south of the country ordered Ousmane Sonko to be reinstated on the voter lists from which he had been removed, reopening the possibility for the opposition leader to run for the presidency. However, his candidacy is far from guaranteed because the Senegalese Supreme Court must decide on appeal whether the restoration of Ousmane Sonko’s civil rights is legitimate or not.