Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has announced a new 30-member cabinet that conspicuously omits senior figures from Ousmane Sonko’s Pastef party. The move comes less than two weeks after Faye dismissed Sonko, his former mentor, as prime minister and dissolved the erstwhile cabinet. Sonko was then elected speaker of parliament, deepening the rift between himself and the president. Faye has since appointed senior economist Ahmadou Al Aminou Mohamed Lo as prime minister, tasking him with addressing the country’s mounting debt. Debt policy had been a point of contention between Faye and Sonko, with Faye favoring negotiations with the IMF to resolve the crisis and Sonko advocating for a more sovereign approach. While several members of Sonko’s Pastef party were included in the new cabinet, Sonko announced that the party would not formally participate.
Al Jazeera
