Amnesty International announced this Thursday that it had documented the deaths of 23 people, including three children, during violent protests earlier this month in Senegal after opposition leader Ousmane Sonko was sentenced to two years in prison.
“The Senegalese authorities must immediately conduct an independent and transparent investigation into the deaths of at least 23 people, including three children, during violent demonstrations on June 1 and 2,” the non-governmental organization (NGO) said in a statement.
The death toll recorded by Amnesty International (AI) in the capital city of Dakar and in the city of Ziguinchor in the south of the country exceeds the official figure provided by Senegal’s Interior Ministry, which has announced a total of 16 deaths so far.