Senegal Students Evacuate University After Deadly Riots - VOA News.

Senegal braced for a second day of unrest Friday after a jail sentence for opposition leader Ousmane Sonko led to one of the deadliest days of violence in recent memory and left parts of the capital's main university in ruins.

MORE: Nine people were killed in clashes in Senegal on Thursday, after protests erupted following the sentencing of Sonko.

Interior Minister Antoine Diome said on national television, "We have noted with regret violence that has led to the destruction of public and private property and, unfortunately, nine deaths in Dakar and Ziguinchor.”

On Thursday, a court in Senegal acquitted Sonko on charges of rape but sentenced him to two years in prison for corrupting youth, disqualifying him, for now, from participating in next year’s presidential elections.

The 48-year-old Sonko, leader of the PASTEF-Patriots party, has maintained the charges were politically motivated since they were first made in 2021 and did not attend the court hearing Thursday. He had been accused of raping a massage parlor worker in 2021 and of making death threats against her.

(Reuters)

www.voanews.com/a/die-in-clashes-in-senegal-following-opposition-leader-s-sentencing-/7119877.html

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