DAKAR, Senegal: Jailed opposition leader Ousmane Sonko was put in intensive care Thursday, nearly three weeks into a hunger strike to protest criminal charges brought against him by Senegal’s government, his party said.
Sonko was put in detention July 31 in advance of a trial in which he faces charges of calling for insurrection, conspiracy against the state and other alleged crimes.
Since Aug. 6, he has been at the Main Hospital in downtown Dakar, the capital, because of ill effects from his hunger strike.
After fainting during the night, Sonko was rushed into an intensive care unit in the same hospital, where he eventually regained consciousness Thursday, said El Malick Ndiaye, a spokesperson for the now-dissolved Patriots of Senegal party led by Sonko.
Sonko had refused medical care the previous five days, and allies are trying to persuade him to change his mind about the hunger strike, Ndiaye said.
“We’re doing everything to get him to stop, because it’s a question of life or death,” Ndiaye said.
Three other detainees who joined Sonko in the hunger strike are also in intensive care.
Sonko placed third in Senegal’s 2019 presidential election and is popular with the country’s young people.
His supporters maintain the charges against him, which have ranged from rape and death threats to defamation and conspiracy against the state, are part of a government effort to derail his candidacy in the 2024 presidential election.
Human Rights Watch has called for the reinstatement of Sonko’s party. Senegal’s government says the party was dissolved July 31, the day Sonko was put in detention.
Senegalese opposition leader in intensive care nearly three weeks into hunger strike
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Senegalese opposition leader in intensive care nearly three weeks into hunger strike
Nigeria police charge driver in fatal Joshua crash
- Adeniyi Mobolaji Kayode charged with reckless and dangerous driving causing death
- British boxer's two friends Latif Ayodele and Sina Ghami were killed in the crash
LAGOS: Nigerian police on Friday charged the driver of a car carrying British boxer Anthony Joshua that was involved in a fatal crash with “reckless” and “dangerous driving causing death.”
Adeniyi Mobolaji Kayode, 46, was also charged with driving without a valid “driver’s license” and “driving without due care and attention, causing bodily harm and damage to property,” Oluseyi Babaseyi, a spokesman for the police in Ogun state, told AFP.
He was granted a five million naira bail ($3,500) but will remain in detention until he meets bail conditions, Babaseyi said.
Kayode was driving the boxer and two of his friends, Latif Ayodele and Sina Ghami, on a busy highway linking Lagos and Ibadan in southwest Nigeria when the Lexus SUV in which they were traveling rammed into a stationary truck on Monday.
Nigerian police and state officials said that Ayodele and Ghami died at the scene, while Joshua and the driver sustained minor injuries.
The Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE) in Ogun state, where the accident occurred, told AFP earlier in the week that its preliminary investigations showed that the vehicle was moving at an excessive speed and had burst a tire before the crash.
Kayode is due to appear in court on January 20.
