DAKAR: Senegal President Bassirou Diomaye Faye on Friday sacked Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and dissolved the government after months of mounting tensions between the former allies, deepening uncertainty in the debt-stricken West African nation.
The shock announcement was made late Friday on state television in a decree read out by presidential aide and secretary-general Oumar Samba Ba, who said Faye “has ended the duties of Ousmane Sonko ... and consequently those of the ministers and secretaries of state who are members of the government.”
Ba added that members of the outgoing government would remain responsible for handling current affairs.
The dismissal caps a prolonged power struggle between Faye and Sonko, whose Pastef party swept to victory in the March 2024 presidential election on promises of sweeping political reform, anti-corruption measures and a break from the old political establishment.
Senegal has been in the unusual position of having a president who largely owed his election to his prime minister. Sonko, a charismatic opposition firebrand with a strong youth following, had been widely expected to win the presidency himself before being barred from running because of a defamation conviction upheld by the country’s Supreme Court and Constitutional Council.
Faye, a close ally and fellow member of the Pastef party — formally known as Patriotes Africains du Sénégal pour le Travail, l’Éthique et la Fraternité — instead ran in Sonko’s place and won the presidency in the first round.
Relations between the two men, once seen as inseparable political partners, deteriorated steadily in recent months.
In early July, Sonko publicly accused Faye of a “failure of leadership” for not defending him strongly enough against critics, fueling speculation of a widening rift within the ruling camp.
In March, Sonko also signaled he was prepared to pull the Pastef party out of government and return to opposition if Faye abandoned the party’s agenda.
Despite Sonko’s popular appeal and influence within Pastef, Senegal’s constitution grants the president sweeping authority over the government, allowing Faye to dismiss his prime minister by decree.
The political split comes as Senegal faces severe economic pressure and a worsening debt crisis.
The International Monetary Fund suspended a $1.8 billion lending program for Senegal after the discovery of previously misreported debt figures, which pushed the country’s estimated end-2024 debt burden to 132 percent of gross domestic product.
Last November, Sonko strongly opposed restructuring Senegal’s estimated $13 billion debt, accusing the IMF of pushing the country toward such a move. Faye has remained more cautious and less vocal on the issue.
Sonko had spearheaded several anti-establishment and pan-Africanist initiatives while in office, including an audit of Senegal’s resource agreements covering the country’s emerging oil and gas sector.
In March, he declared a BP gas contract linked to the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim project unfair and revoked 71 mining licenses, saying Senegal needed to secure better returns from its natural resources.
He had argued that renegotiating oil and gas contracts would lower domestic energy prices, strengthen public finances and help revive the economy.
Pastef rose to power after years of fierce opposition to the former ruling Alliance pour la République party and ex-president Macky Sall, whose administration was accused by critics of democratic backsliding and political repression.
Speculation that Sall could seek another term after a controversial 2016 constitutional revision triggered widespread unrest before he eventually stepped aside ahead of the 2024 vote.
Shortly after news of his dismissal broke, Sonko posted a brief message on X: “Praise be to Allah. Tonight I will sleep with a light heart in the Keur Gorgui neighborhood,” referring to his private residence in Dakar.
(With AP, Reuters & AFP)
