“The bullet found him at home. “This man with delicate words chose to take refuge behind fate to tell the drama that took place between June 4 and 5. That night, his friend died, alone, in the darkness of his room, after being shot in the back by a “stray bullet”, as his neighbors insist. In Ziguinchor, in southern Senegal, some even believe that Mamadou Tall, 44, was shot while praying. “Nobody knows what he was doing, launches this relative who wishes to remain anonymous. What is certain is that he was at home. »
There is indeed a hole in the exterior metal shutter of his little house located in the Néma 2 district. in places by the heat of Casamance. Nothing has been touched since the disastrous night: his mattress, his flip flops, his clothes thrown on a pink suitcase, his cigarette ends, his “jakarta” (nickname given to motorcycle taxis) or his telephones are still there.
When the clashes with the police began on June 1, just after the mayor of Ziguinchor, Ousmane Sonko, was sentenced to two years in prison for “youth corruption” (the opponent, tried on his own absence, was acquitted of charges of death threats and rape brought by Adji Sarr, an employee of a massage parlor who was 20 years old at the time of the events, between December 2020 and February 2021), Mamadou Tall did not go out Rebell. “He was a hard worker who drove his scooter day and night, claims his friend. He was not political, nor pro-Sonko. »
He therefore did not demonstrate against this sentence which prevents the president of the Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (Pastef) party from running in the presidential election of February 2024. The head of the State, Macky Sall, meanwhile maintains the ambiguity about his participation in the ballot for a third term deemed by many to be unconstitutional.
“I have never seen such violence”
What happened on June 4th? On the fourth day of the violence, residents of the neighborhood remember a “heated” evening during which the police – in civilian clothes and in uniform – “fired more live ammunition than tear gas”. “The population is a shooting center,” says a man in his twenties. Around 9 p.m., young people and police have been facing each other for a while, first towards Castor, a nearby district, before arriving at Néma 2. Witnesses to the repression insist on the gas thrown at the foot of the houses , the tear gas that coats the hot air in living rooms, bedrooms and kitchens. “My young children fainted,” said a mother.
An hour later, the neighborhood hears new shots: young people are near Mamadou Tall’s house and are dispersed by the police. It was then that he was allegedly hit by “a medium distance shot” in the back, “with a small caliber bullet (4.5mm-5.5mm)”, but “he could be two bullets, one having passed through, the other having remained under the skin,” writes the autopsy report. “It’s not a stray bullet for me. Why target dwellings? asks his friend. Mamadou Tall came to Ziguinchor in 2017 to find work. He was buried in his village of Podor (north), near the Mauritanian border, where his wife and two very young children live.
According to Amnesty International, at least twenty-three people have died across the country in four days of rioting. Ziguinchor has five (a sixth near Cap Skirring, a seaside town in Casamance). “There were also eleven gunshot wounds,” said Bassirou Coly, deputy mayor in charge of youth. I have never seen such violence. This word constantly comes up in the words of witnesses to describe the clashes.
“The police intended to kill the demonstrators, these are assassinations”, thunders Mohamed Sano, uncle of Souleymane, one of the victims. This young man of 25, a metal carpenter, lost his life on June 2 at the end of the day, very close to the CIA nightclub. According to a friend present at the scene, a policeman was hidden, lying on the ground. “Souleymane was not well hidden. This policeman targeted him,” he said, fear in his eyes. He hears a “tah”. He wants to escape, turns around and sees his friend on the ground. “The police had already left,” he describes. We put it on a jakarta. At three on the motorcycle, we took him to the Belfort dispensary, but it was closed. In fact, Souleymane was already dead. His friends confide that his girlfriend is two months pregnant.
Stones against tear gas canisters
Souleymane was buried amid tear gas – there was a clash with law enforcement at the funeral – on June 8 at the Belfort cemetery. Ousmane Badio, 17, was also buried there on Saturday afternoon June 10, a few hours after Sidiya Diatta, 31, was buried in a village not far from Ziguinchor. Hundreds of people came, like at every ceremony. Ousmane, an apprentice mechanic, motorcycle fanatic and Senegalese rapper BM Jaay, is the youngest of the “martyrs”, as his relatives say, the first to fall too.
This June 1 at the end of the afternoon, a few steps from his home, in the Boucotte Korentas district, not far from the Total station, the boy took a bullet under his neck. Videos show him dying. His friends tell of an outburst of violence: stones against tear gas canisters. “Once they ran out of gas, the police fired live ammunition. Some agents targeted us,” repeats a friend of Ousmane. One of them even picks up a casing. To protect themselves, they say they used an iron gate. “The policeman who killed Ousmane was put in an armored car, they waited for reinforcements to exfiltrate him, assures another friend. We will never find him. »
For the public authorities, the deaths of Mamadou Tall, Souleymane Sano, Ousmane Badio and Sidiya Diatta “result[s] from a violent death by thoracic trauma due to the impact of a projectile from a firearm”. Their death certificates all mention this same standard phrase. Amnesty International calls on “the authorities to carry out a credible, independent and impartial investigation into the circumstances of these deaths and to ensure that those responsible for the unlawful killings are prosecuted according to fair trial standards”. The many relatives of the victims whom Le Monde met doubt that such an investigation will see the light of day.
Authorities declined to comment. “No statement to make,” says Guédji Diouf, the governor of Ziguinchor. Commissioner Chérif Malamine Mansaly says that “judicial investigations are underway”, but that “nothing proves that it was the police who fired”.
