Jailed Senegal Journalist Falls Ill On Hunger Strike
By AFP
A jailed Senegalese journalist critical of President Macky Sall has been hospitalised on the ninth day of a hunger strike in protest at his treatment, a media union and a lawyer said Saturday.
He is accused of having broadcast confidential messages about security arrangements surrounding last month’s interrogation of leading opposition politician Ousmane Sonko over rape allegations.
“Pape Ale Niang’s health has seriously deteriorated,” said Ibrahima Lissa Faye, an official at Senegal’s Coordination of Press Associations, which represents several press unions.
“Overnight (Friday to Saturday) he was taken to a clinic to be hospitalised,” he said in a statement.
Lawyer Moussa Sarr told AFP Niang was under observation in a private clinic. “His family doctor confirmed he was really suffering,” he told RFM radio.
Niang has accused the authorities of kidnapping him, psychological torture and “arbitrary and unfair imprisonment” in a jail near the capital Dakar.
His detention sparked fierce criticism from the press and civil society organisations, with hundreds of protesters demonstrating in Dakar last month calling for his release.
Senegal was ranked 73rd out of 180 in RSF’s 2022 press freedom ranking, falling 24 places from the previous year.
