Senegal's President forms new cabinet, leaves out PASTEF members

Senegal’s President Bassirou Faye has set up a new cabinet. This comes less than two weeks after he fired his former ally, Ousmane Sonko, and dissolved the government.

The new cabinet, which has 30 members, was announced on Monday during a live broadcast. This happened an hour after Mr Sonko, the former prime minister, announced that his party, PASTEF, would no longer be part of the new government.

Mr Sonko stated on Monday that PASTEF would not take part in the government anymore. He also said no member of the party would hold any ministerial position. After his announcement, Mr Faye revealed his new cabinet members. None of them were from PASTEF, according to Bloomberg.

Mr Sonko shared on X that he met with Mr Faye. During their meeting, they had “points of disagreement” about PASTEF’s role in the executive branch. He noted that PASTEF, which has a significant majority in parliament, would not join the next government.

“As a result, PASTEF will not participate in the next government and will not be represented there by any minister. We will return to this with more detailed information. We wish every success to the new team,” he wrote.

This report highlights the latest events from the political rift between former allies. This situation further weakens Senegal’s ability to deal with its debt crisis.

In 2024, the IMF paused its $1.8 billion lending program for Senegal. This was after the government revealed that it had misreported debt figures. This pause raised the country’s debt burden to 132 percent of GDP by the end of 2024.

The tension stems from a growing power struggle for control of the government. There are also disagreements over economic policies and IMF negotiations.

Mr Sonko felt that President Faye was straying from the party’s original goals. He had earlier warned that he might pull PASTEF out of the government and return to the opposition.

A few days after Mr Sonko was dismissed, Mr Faye appointed Ahmadu Al Aminou Lo as the new prime minister. Lo is an economist and a former banker at the Central Bank of West African States.