MARY ALEXANDER • 2 APRIL 2024

After a controversial month-long delay, the West African country of Senegal held its presidential election on 24 March 2024.

Two of the 19 candidates – the highest number in the country’s history – led the pack.

One was the ruling Benno Bokk Yaakaar alliance’s Amadou Ba, a former prime minister who outgoing president Macky Sall chose as his successor.

The other was Bassirou Diomaye Faye of the opposition Pastef party. Faye was released from prison just 10 days before the vote. Also released was popular Pastef leader Ousmane Sonko.

The party itself had been dissolved by Senegal’s government in 2023 and Sonko was barred from running. So Faye stepped in.

On 25 March, less than 24 hours after voting stations closed, Ba conceded to Faye. Senegal’s electoral commission had announced that Faye had won 53.68% of the 90% of ballots counted.

The next day, a short video of a man giving a speech in English appeared on social media with the claim he was Faye, saying “it’s time for France to leave Senegal alone”.*

Senegal is a French-speaking country and was France’s oldest African colony until independence in 1960. The two countries maintain strong political and economic ties, and France has an air force base in Dakar, Senegal’s capital.

The video is overlaid with the text: “The next African President is speaking. Even His English is clean than alot of current Presidents in our Continent.” Its captions identify the man as Faye.

The clip begins with the man appearing to say:

It is high time for France to lift its knee off our neck and put an end to this unjust oppression. Centuries of misery, human trafficking, colonialism and neocolonialism have caused immeasurable suffering. It is time to put an end to this cycle of oppression. It’s high time for France to leave us alone.

The video can also be seen here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Faye and his allies have pledged to fight France’s “economic stranglehold” on Senegal. But is the man in the video really Faye, speaking English?

Sonko’s 2021 press conference – in French

The man in the video is clearly Ousmane Sonko, not Bassirou Faye.

Africa Check googled videos using the French keywords “discours d’Ousmane Sonko” – “speech by Ousmane Sonko”.

This led us to a press conference Sonko held in Dakar on 2 July 2021. It was streamed live on YouTube by Senegal7, a local TV news channel.

Sonko’s posture and gestures, his suit, the white background and the Senegalese flag to his right all indicate that the viral video was taken from the live stream.

In the stream, Sonko gives an hour-and-a-half speech on a range of topics – in French. He posted a transcript of the speech, also in French, on his X/Twitter account on the same day.

Not only does the viral video show Sonko, but it has been altered, with English audio replacing Sonko’s original French.

But Sonko did say something similar in his 2021 speech. A machine translation of a part of its transcript reads:

But it is time for France to lift its knee from our necks and do like its European peers (Germany, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, etc.) who are prospering without sucking the blood of the former colonies.

Mais il est temps que la France lève son genou de notre cou et fasse comme ses pairs européens (Allemagne, Italie, Espagne, Grande Bretagne, Suède, Pays-Bas,…) qui prospèrent sans sucer le sang des anciennes colonies.

— Ousmane Sonko (@SonkoOfficiel) July 2, 2021

A six-minute excerpt of the speech was also posted on the Satanal Media YouTube channel, headlined (in French) “It’s time for France to let go of us.”

Faye was inaugurated on 2 April 2024. At 44, he is Senegal’s youngest president yet.

* Some claims posted on Facebook and Instagram may have been deleted by users after being rated via Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program.

Published by Africa Check on 12 April 2024

The post Senegal’s new president Faye telling France to leave his country alone? No, old video of allied politician Sonko with English audio added appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 16 FEBRUARY 2024

Violent protests erupted in cities across the West African country of Senegal in early February 2024 after president Macky Sall decreed that the elections scheduled for that month would be postponed indefinitely.

Days later the country’s parliament endorsed the decree in a chaotic vote that eventually set a new election date of 15 December.

Sall justified his decision by saying the country “needed more time to resolve controversies over the disqualification of some candidates and a conflict between the legislative and judicial branches of government”.

Elected in 2012, Sall initiated a 2016 referendum that limited presidential rule to two five-year terms. There are suggestions that the 2024 election delay may have something to do with Senegal’s recently discovered oil and gas reserves.

Soon after Sall’s decree, a video appeared on social media in Nigeria, South Africa and the US with the claim it showed the February 2024 protests, which so far have killed three people.*

In the footage, thousands of people – many of them waving the flag of Senegal – are peacefully gathered in a city square.

The clip was posted on X/Twitter on 5 February with a range of captions, all making the same claim:

• Protests continue in Senegal, with mobile internet cut off in the capital Dakar on Monday after President Macky Sall unexpectedly announced the postponement of elections previously scheduled for February 25 by up to six months.
• You’re watching mass resistance taking place here on the streets of #Dakar as the ppl of #Senegal seek to remove their corrupt president …
• I love what is happening in Senegal. The people are resisting Sall’s announcement requesting a postponement of the election indefinitely.
• This is in Senegal yesterday as citizens protested against President Macky Sall’s postponement of the upcoming coming general election.

The claim can also be seen here, here, here and here.

The video was filmed in Dakar, Senegal’s capital. But it’s almost a year old and the protest it shows was during a different political crisis.

Protests against opposition leader’s defamation case

A Google Lens reverse image search of frames from the video produced two X posts with the same clip from March 2023.

“Senegal opposition leader removed from prison by the PEOPLE,” reads one. The other reads: “The Senegalese release opposition leader from jail.”

The Senegalese release opposition leader from jail. #DateWithDestiny pic.twitter.com/1rU4VX7zdW

— Azimio TV (@AzimioTv) March 24, 2023

We then googled “Senegal opposition leader protest” with the results limited to March 2023.

This led us to several news reports on Ousmane Sonko, leader of the Patriots of Senegal or Pastef political party. Sonko placed third in the country’s 2019 presidential election, which won Sall his second presidential term.

In March 2023 Senegal’s tourism minister Mame Mbaye Niang sued Sonko for “defamation, insult and forgery”. This led to three days of protests in Dakar ahead of the opposition leader’s court date on 16 March.

The viral video, from the 15-second mark, zooms in on a man in a green cap, off-white jacket and brown trousers standing through the open roof of a black utility vehicle, with a white vehicle behind it.

In news videos of the first day of the March 2023 protests, Sonko can be seen in the same clothes standing in the same black vehicle, with the same white vehicle behind it.

The clip was filmed in March 2023, not February 2024.

In June 2023 Sonko was sentenced to two years in prison for “corrupting the youth”. He remains behind bars.

Update: Sonko was released on 14 March 2024. Elections were eventually held on 24 March. Sonko was barred from running, but allied politician Bassirou Diomaye Faye was voted in as Senegal’s next president.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 19 February 2024

The post Video of 2023 rally for Senegalese opposition leader Sonko – not 2024 protests against president Sall’s elections decree appeared first on South Africa Gateway.