The police in Senegal have made excessive use of tear gas and truncheon against demonstrators in the streets of Dakar, on Friday, 14 October 2016 leaving several people injured.
The MFWA’s correspondent in Senegal reported that the demonstrators who were drawn from different political persuasions, were demanding greater transparency in the management of the country’s natural resources. The protesters reportedly failed to follow the march route and the police responded by “chasing and beating them into a stampede.”
This is the second time in 2016 that the right to associate, demonstrate and freely express oneself has been supressed by the authorities in Senegal.
On February 27, 2016, the authorities banned an opposition march regarding the reduction of the presidential tenure from 7 to 5 years.
The rights to free expression, association and opposition are enshrined in Article 7 and 58 of the Senegalese constitution of 2011
The MFWA condemns the brutal and violent suppression of the demonstration and calls on the Senegalese authorities to bring the security agencies to respect the Senegalese Constitution, African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Right as well as the International Covenant on Civic and Political Rights to which Senegal is signatory. MFWA appeal on the organisers of the demonstration to build consensus on the march route in order to avoid unnecessary clashes with the security forces.
