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Thousands of people have signed an online petition demanding the resumption of the maritime service between Dakar and Ziguinchor, the main city in Casamance, southern Senegal. The service has been suspended for over four months due to political tensions related to opposition figure Ousmane Sonko.
Thousands of people have signed an online petition demanding the resumption of the maritime service between Dakar and Ziguinchor, the main city in Casamance, southern Senegal. The service has been suspended for over four months due to political tensions related to opposition figure Ousmane Sonko.
The petition, initiated by Xavier Diatta, the head of an agro-food company based in Ziguinchor, called for immediate resumption of maritime connection. The petition is getting support from several people and has garnered over 3,796 signatures so far (as of Monday, October 23, 2023).
Passenger and freight transport, which was provided by three vessels, has been halted by Senegalese authorities without an official explanation since June. The suspension followed violent unrest in Ziguinchor and other cities in the country following the conviction of the political opposition leader Sonko in a moral-related case. Since then, the entire local economy has come to a standstill. Transportation costs by road have tripled. Prices of goods coming from Dakar have also increased. Casamance is known for its fisheries, fruits, and vegetables, which are transported several times a week to Dakar by road or air.
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Opposition figure Sonko, who serves as the mayor of Ziguinchor, has been detained since late July on various charges, including incitement to rebellion. He announced that he would resume his hunger strike, which he had stopped in early September, in solidarity with his unjustly arrested supporters. As a candidate in the February 2024 presidential election, the 49-year-old Sonko accuses President Macky Sall, who denies the allegations, of attempting to exclude him from the election through legal procedures. President Sall, elected in 2012 and re-elected in 2019, declared in early July that he would not seek re-election.
