Senegalese women’s groups and dozens of well-known figures have accused opposition leader Ousmane Sonko of insulting a woman who has accused him of rape, saying his comments showed he was unfit for higher office.
Sonko, 48, is embroiled in a legal saga he says is politically motivated. In a live-streamed speech on Wednesday following a court hearing into the case, he repeated his protestations of innocence in the ongoing trial and said “Even if I had to rape, I would not rape someone who looks like a monkey that has had a stroke.”
“Do you think that I, Ousmane Sonko, am so in need of a woman that I would rape a woman?”
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In a joint open letter, the signatories, which included over 30 prominent academics, campaigners, and artists, said “These remarks reinforce and normalize the culture of rape and are unworthy of a man who aspires to the highest office in our country.”
“We call on all women’s rights organizations and opinion leaders to condemn these dehumanizing and insulting comments towards women.”
Sonko, who has a substantial following among young voters, also faced some backlash to the remarks online.
His team did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.
Senegal’s opposition coalition Yewwi Askan Wi planned to rally in the capital Dakar in support of Sonko on Friday, but the demonstration was not authorized and did not take place.
The charges against him have sparked sporadic and sometimes violent protests over the last two years, undermining Senegal’s image as one of West Africa’s most stable democracies.
He is accused of sexually assaulting and making death threats to a woman who worked in a massage parlor in 2021. He denies wrongdoing and has boycotted the court proceedings. The authorities deny his accusations that this trial and another libel case are politically motivated.
(Editor: Oloyede Oworu)
