DAKAR – Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko yesterday called for vengeance following what he described as attacks against supporters of his Pastef party by the opposition during the campaign for Sunday’s parliamentary elections. 

Sonko, who has been head of the government since it took office in April, spoke of clashes in the capital Dakar, the northern city of Saint-Louis and the central town of Koungheul. He blamed the attacks on supporters of Dakar mayor Barthelemy Dias, who heads a rival coalition. “Let every aggression suffered by Pastef on their part since the start of the campaign, let every patriot they have attacked and injured, be proportionally avenged,” Sonko wrote in a Facebook post. 

“We wi ll exe rc i se our legitimate right to retaliate.” Sonko said complaints had been filed, but that there had been “zero arrests”. “Barthelemy Dias and his coalition should no longer campaign in this country,” he said. A meeting of Pastef party supporters was scheduled for later yesterday near Dias’s home, a Pastef official told AFP. 

Dias’s coalition, Samm Sa Kaddu, denounced on social media a “call to murder made by the current prime minister of Senegal”. It said it had itself been targeted by “multiple attacks” d u r i ng t he camp a i g n . “Ousmane Sonko, consumed by the fear of defeat, is desperately trying to muzzle democracy by attempting to create a climate of terror,” it added. 

“The Samm Sa Kaddu coalition holds Ousmane Sonko responsible for anything that might happen to its members, act ivists, supporters and voters,” it said. Senegal is due to elect a new parliament on Sunday after president Bassirou Diomaye Faye dissolved the opposition-dominated chamber in September. The ruling Pastef party aims to secure a legislative majority to implement its agenda of social justice, economic transformation and efforts to fight corruption. At the end of last month, Faye called for those involved in the election to show “responsibility, restraint and moderation”. – Nampa/AFP