Pape Ale Niang, a well-known Senegalese journalist and government skeptic who has been fasting in opposition to charges brought against him, has been taken to a hospital, according to a statement made by his lawyer to AFP on Sunday.
According to Moussa Sarr, one of Niang’s attorneys, Niang was brought to a hospital in Dakar on Saturday night after his health declined as a result of his most recent hunger strike.
Niang was detained on November 6 and charged with “divulging information likely to impair national defense” in a case that has drawn attention from around the world.
On December 2, he began a hunger strike, and when his health deteriorated, he was subsequently admitted to a clinic. After receiving a temporary release, he was detained once more on December 20, when he began a new hunger strike.
Niang is well-known in Senegal for his frequent editorials about current events. He is the editor-in-chief of the online newspaper Dakar Matin.
After he wrote about Ousmane Sonko, the head of the country’s largest opposition, being accused of rape, the case against him developed.
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Labor unions say that he leaked private information about the security plans for Sonko’s meeting with investigators on November 3.
The press, civil society groups, and Senegal’s opposition were all outraged by his arrest and called for him to be set free.
In unstable West Africa, Senegal has a solid reputation for openness and journalistic freedom, but Reporters Without Borders claims that this image is deteriorating.
Senegal dropped 24 places from its 2021 ranking to the 73rd position in its 2022 Press Freedom Index, which evaluated 180 nations.
