Senegal PM seeks to repeal contested amnesty law

Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko said Friday that his government would submit legislation to repeal a law by former president Macky Sall granting amnesty for deadly political violence.

The controversial amnesty was granted just before March 2024 elections as Sall sought to calm protests sparked by his last-minute postponement of presidential elections in the traditionally stable West African country.

Critics say the move was to shield perpetrators of serious crimes, including homicides, committed during three years of political tensions between February 2021 and February 2024.

But it also allowed Sonko, a popular opposition figure, to stand in the elections after court convictions had made him ineligible, as well as Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who eventually won the presidency.

“In addition to putting compensation for victims into the budget, a draft law will be submitted to your august Assembly to repeal the March 6, 2024 amnesty so that light may be shed and responsibilities determined on whatever side they may lie,” Sonko said in a policy speech before lawmakers.

Sonko’s government had pledged earlier this month to investigate dozens of deaths resulting from political violence between 2021 and 2024.

“It’s not a witch hunt and even less vengeance… It’s justice, the foundation without which social peace cannot be built,” Sonko told lawmakers.