JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Friday congratulated Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye on his country’s Independence Day.

In a cable, King Salman wished the president “continued good health and happiness,” and the government and people of Senegal “steady progress and prosperity.”

The crown prince issued a similar statement, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The west African country celebrates its independence yearly on April 4, the day it signed a transfer of power agreement with France in 1960 to form the Mali Federation with French Sudan. The union, however, was short-lived as the two parted ways in August of the same year and the former French Sudan became the Republic of Mali.

In early 1982, Senegal and neighboring Gambia formed the Confederation of Senegambia, only to be dissolved in 1989 as the integration was never carried out.

Faye, the current president, was an opposition candidate who rose to power after defeating incumbent president Macky Sall in the March 2024 election.