Senegalese Prime Minister, Ousmane Sonko announced Friday that his government would propose legislation to abolish previous President Macky Sall’s statute that granted amnesty for deadly political violence.
The contentious amnesty was granted shortly before the March 2024 polls, as Sall attempted to quell demonstrations triggered by his last-minute delay of presidential elections in the typically stable West African country.
Critics argue that the measure was meant to protect perpetrators of severe crimes, including homicides, committed during the three years of political upheaval from February 2021 to February 2024.
However, it also permitted Sonko, a popular opposition figure, to run in the elections despite court convictions that had rendered him ineligible, as well as Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who finally won the president.
Sonko’s government had pledged earlier this month to investigate dozens of deaths resulting from political violence between 2021 and 2024.
