EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE and lead to criminal charges against the Fourteen people, including three children, organizers. were killed in March when security forces RIGHT TO HEALTH used live ammunition to disperse nationwide protests – some of which had turned violent – Beginning in March, Senegal rolled out its in Dakar, Bignona, Kaolack and Diaobé, Covid-19 vaccination campaign, with the following the arrest and detention of support of COVAX. A shortage of vaccines in Ousmane Sonko. At least 400 people were July coincided with a new wave of Covid-19, injured. and a 44% increase in cases. During the protests in Dakar, armed people As of December, 1.9 million Covid-19 were seen operating in support of the police vaccinations had been administered, with and attacking protesters in several 593,000 individuals fully vaccinated, neighbourhoods. The Senegalese representing 5.6% of the population. government described these individuals as police officers wearing civilian clothes. DETAINEES’ RIGHTS The independent commission announced The health of detainees was seriously put at by the authorities in April to investigate the risk by prison overcrowding. The system violent incidents during the protests had not implemented by the prison authorities to been put in place. The president announced monitor Covid-19 cases led to overcrowding in December that a judicial investigation had in the CapManuel prison in Dakar, with been opened. detainees unable to even lie down. This FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND prison was indeed chosen by the authorities ASSEMBLY to receive all new detainees, as a triage and quarantine facility, before they were In March, the national broadcasting regularity eventually dispatched to other detention authority suspended Walf TV and Sen TV for facilities. 72 hours because of their live broadcasts of FORCED EVICTIONS the protests, which it described as “incitement to violence” and “irresponsible Rural communities continued to challenge coverage”. Protesters also vandalized their forced evictions, which were carried out property belonging to the Groupe Futurs to make room for business interests. In Media press holding and the newspaper Le Dougar (a city to the east of Dakar), 21 Soleil for their perceived association with the people were arrested in May during protests government. against the allocation of 72 hectares of land In the same month, the authorities to a private company. According to the disrupted access to the internet and social communities affected, the XOF100 million media ahead of a planned protest in Dakar. (US$178,000) compensation offered, based In June, the National Assembly amended on a 1973 compensation scale, did not the terrorism-related chapters of the Criminal reflect the current cost of living. Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, in WORKERS’ RIGHTS a move that seriously restricted the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful In August, the authorities warned private assembly. Terrorism, which has an overly employers against suspending and firing broad definition, encompassed acts linked to workers who were not vaccinated against disturbing public order, criminal association, Covid-19, calling such measures infractions linked to new technologies of discriminatory. information and communication, and “incitement to terrorist acts”. Protests that LGBTI PEOPLE’S RIGHTS turn violent could fall under this definition There were several public physical attacks against LGBTI people in Dakar and Amnesty International Report 2021/22 321