The right of Senegalese to demonstrate peacefully must be “respected,” the spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday after the African nation’s authorities banned protests following the postponement of the presidential election.
“We are… very concerned about the continuing situation in Senegal,” Guterres’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. “It is first of all extremely important that all Senegalese have their right to demonstrate peacefully respected,” he added, calling for the situation to be “resolved through established constitutional means.”
Separately, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Tuesday for elections in Senegal to be held as soon as possible as he voiced alarm about the country’s delayed vote in a call to President Macky Sall.
Blinken “spoke to the president of Senegal this morning to reiterate our concern about the situation there and to make quite clear that we want to see elections continue as they were scheduled — we want to see them take place as soon as possible,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
Miller also said that the United States was “extremely concerned about the situation” in the West African nation, where authorities Tuesday suspended mobile internet and banned a protest march.