The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org. June 5, 2023 Deadly Protests Erupt in Senegal After Arrest of Opposition Leader Ousmane Sonko -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Senegal, at least 15 people have been killed after police began a crackdown on protests staged by supporters of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko. The crackdown began after a Senegalese court on Thursday sentenced Sonko to two years in prison over an alleged sexual assault. He has accused the government of manufacturing charges against him to derail his candidacy. Sonko is popular among Senegal's youth and a likely candidate in the 2024 presidential election. This is a student who joined protests in the capital Dakar on Friday. Alioune Ndiaye: "It's unfortunate. We don't want things to be like this, because we all want to learn and finish the year. But since the state has done what it wants, we, too, have our opinion. That's it."