On Monday, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye announced a new government that does not include the party headed by his erstwhile ally Ousmane Sonko, whom he dismissed as prime minister due to political disagreements.
Faye’s announcement came in a live television broadcast less than two weeks after he fired Sonko, his former mentor, and dismissed the cabinet following disagreements including over the troubled economy.
A popular figure, Sonko was promptly elected speaker of parliament by allies in a vote boycotted by the opposition, deepening the political crisis in the west African country.
Sonko remains the undisputed leader of Pastef, the party he founded in 2014 — to which Faye also belongs — and which controls 130 of the 165 seats in Senegal’s only legislative body.
On Monday, Faye named senior economist Ahmadou Al Aminou Mohamed Lo as prime minister, saying the new appointee had the expertise to steer Senegal out of its crippling debt.
Lo on Monday read out the list of 30 new ministers, none of them from Pastef which had dominated the previous administration.
Sonko said his party would not join the cabinet after disagreeing about it with Faye during a “long conversation” earlier Monday.
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“Some points of agreement were indeed confirmed, but also, above all, points of disagreement,” Sonko said in a statement on social media.
Faye appointed Sonko as prime minister in April 2024 just days after being elected president.
Sonko would almost certainly have won the top job if he had not been barred from the presidential election due to a defamation conviction.
With his pan-Africanist rhetoric, Sonko had gained a following among young Senegalese after a power struggle with former president Macky Sall, who ruled from 2012 to 2024.
Tensions began to surface in July when the outspoken Sonko accused Faye of a “failure of leadership” by not backing him up enough against his many critics.
Earlier this month, the president took a shot at Sonko, saying the party needed to be “depersonalised” from any leader dominating it.
While Faye is open to discussions with the International Monetary Fund on a new loan programme, Sonko had advocated a more sovereign approach.
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