Rest in Peace Mohammed Korka Ba
Mohammed Korka Ba, aged 20, from Bignona in the southern Casamance region of Senegal, died today 20 March 2023.
He died from a gunshot wound to the head from a live bullet, when security forces opened fire on demonstrators in Bignona. Another young man Sadio Dramé sustained a bullet wound and was evacuated to hospital in Ziguinchore.
Protesters were demonstrating about the rumors of an assassination attempt on Ousmane Sonko, the main opposition leader in Senegal.
The same day saw a teachers strike against the arrests and imprisonment of school teachers involved in previous demonstrations. School students had also left school premises to join protests across a number of towns across Senegal, includng Bignona. Over the weekend there were many arrests of protesters, including these teachers, and young people were determined to show their defiance.
This is not the first time that security forces has used live ammunition to try an supress demonstrations in Casamance and in Bignona. In June 2022 Alexis Abdoulaye Diatta was shot and killed during a demonstration in the same town. That death followed that of 14 year old Bounama Sylla who was killed after confrontations by the security forces in a demonstration, also in Bignona in March 2021.
No investigation has ever been held into these previous deaths. In the 2021 the US State Department Report of Human Rights in Senegal wrote about "credible reports of: unlawful or arbitrary killings including extrajudicial killings by or on behalf of the government".
No comments:
Post a Comment