New Senegalese President appoints controversial ally as prime minister
The new Senegal President, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, has appointed opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko, as the country’s new prime minister.
Sanko is a close ally of the president and enjoys support among young Senegalese.
Faye, 44, who made the announcement early Wednesday, was sworn-in as Senegal new president on Tuesday
Sonko, 49, has a reputation as an opponent of corruption, a critic of the country’s elites, a pan-Africanist and as a conservative Muslim.
He had been prevented from running for the presidency at the end of March after receiving a six-month suspended sentence for libeling a minister he had accused of corruption.
In June he was handed a two-year prison sentence in relation to a charge of abuse of a 20-year-old woman.
Faye was also held in custody for 11 months on account of a Facebook post in which he criticised the country’s legal establishment. Mass demonstrations and riots erupted in response to their detention. There was similar demonstrations when Sonko was arrest in 2021.
Both Sonko and Faye were released from prison 10 days before the presidential elections, which Faye, one of Africa’s youngest presidents, won with 54.28 per cent of the vote in the country of some 18 million.
He succeeded Macky Sall, who had served as president from 2012. The government candidate, Amadou Ba, secured 35.79 per cent.
