Senegal’s Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko called Sunday for solidarity with the people of Palestine, denouncing what he described as an ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Addressing a political gathering that drew hundreds of youth in the capital Dakar, Sonko accused the world’s major powers of complicity in the eight-month tragedy of death and destruction in Gaza.
In a direct appeal to Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, he mentioned the need for Senegal to back South Africa’s case against Israel at The Hague-based International Court of Justice (ICJ), which accuses Israel of violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention in its war on the Gaza Strip.
“I will begin my address by asking for a minute of prayer for the martyred people of Palestine…a people today subjected to genocide with the complicity of all the powers of this world,” he said.
“Those who define themselves as the great democracies, those who defend human rights, are today the greatest accomplices in the genocide perpetrated against the Palestinian people.”
Last December, South Africa filed its case against Israel, accusing it of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
More than a dozen countries have since joined or declared their intention to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel.
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.
More than 37,000 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and nearly 84,500 others injured, according to local health authorities.
Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.