DAKAR: At least three people were during clashes between Senegalese police and supporters of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko.
The interior ministry said in a statement that it was “informed of the discovery of the bodies of two more young people.”
“One of them seemingly died of knife injuries in a suburb of the capital Dakar, while the second was found in the southern city of Ziguinchor,” it said without further elaborating.
The interior ministry did not directly attribute the latest deaths to the earlier protests, but said it “strongly urges parents to prevent their children from taking part in violent protests.”
These events were liable to “attacks, theft, looting and vandalism, the statement said.
On Monday, the interior ministry said a policeman was killed after being accidentally crushed by an armoured vehicle that had been deployed at the protest site in Ziguinchor.
Crowds blocked roads with woods and burned tyres and threw stones at police who responded with tear gas, according to AFP.
Local media said that several protesters had been wounded.
Protests in Ziguinchor and Dakar broke out on the eve of a scheduled court appearance by Sonko, facing trial for the alleged rape of a beauty salon employee.
Sonko, 48, who was also recently sentenced to a six-month suspended prison for defamation and insults against the tourism minister, has denied the rape allegation against hi..
Sonko, president of the Pastef-Patriots party, clinched third position in the 2019 presidential elections.
He said that the legal cases against him were a plot to bar him from contesting the 2024 elections.
Senegal is usually an example of stability in troubled West Africa, but in recent years, it has seen turbulence and deadly violence
When Sonko was arrested in 2021, at least 12 people were killed during protests.
