“To save democracy,” the Senegal community living in Bilbao is invited to demonstrate on Tuesday. They will depart at 17:00 from Dr. Fleming Square to denounce the repression of the Government of Senegal and neocolonialism, among other issues. The organizers warn that it is time to say “Macky Sall no to the dictatorship of the illegitimate president” and stand up against the government. On Saturday they mobilized in Pamplona to make the same complaint.

The Government of Senegal has responded with brutal repression and violence to the protests of opposition youth. At least 12 people have died, 500 have been arrested and 150 have been imprisoned in recent weeks. In the press release they have denounced that President Macky Sall has for years been instrumentalizing justice and militarizing streets with a goal: “To intimidate Senegalese youth who are in resistance and to use violence, and to do so, he commands the use of bullets and weeping gases against civilians who protest peacefully and without weapons.”

Another of the main reasons for the protest is to denounce the prison sentence imposed on Ousmane Sonko, leader of PASTEF’s opposition, accusing him of preventing young people. “Half the population knows it’s a political plot to physically end the enemy that has every chance of winning in the February 2024 elections.”