DAKAR, Senegal — Senegal has entered a new phase of political uncertainty after President Bassirou Diomaye Faye appointed former regional banking executive Ahmadou Al Aminou Lo as the West African nation’s new prime minister this Monday. The leadership shake-up comes one week after Faye removed his former ally Ousmane Sonko from the top government post, ending a months-long standoff that has shaken the ruling party amid mounting national economic challenges.
A formal statement announcing Lo’s appointment was broadcast publicly on Senegal’s national television, confirming that he will take over the head of government role that Sonko held since the ruling Pastef party took power earlier this year. Sonko’s dismissal on Friday triggered the immediate resignation of his entire cabinet and the formal dissolution of the previous administration, leaving Lo tasked with building a new government from scratch.
The political rift between Faye and Sonko is no secret to the Senegalese public. Tensions between the two Pastef leaders had simmered for months over competing policy priorities, most notably disagreements around ongoing negotiations for a critical loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund. The public friction escalated earlier in May, when Faye issued a public warning that Sonko would only retain his position as prime minister if he improved his performance in the role.
Lo brings deep regional economic and monetary policy experience to his new post. Before entering domestic politics, he held a senior executive role at the Central Bank of West African States, where he helped shape coordinated monetary and economic strategy across the West African region. Most recently, he served as a state minister to the presidency and cabinet secretary-general in Sonko’s ousted administration, giving him intimate knowledge of the current government’s ongoing policy challenges.
The political drama marks a dramatic falling out between two figures who just months ago were close allies in a successful election campaign. Pastef — short for Patriotes Africains du Sénégal pour le Travail, l’Éthique et la Fraternité in French — swept to power in March 2024 general elections after a hard-fought campaign against the long-ruling Alliance pour la République. The election cycle was already roiled by controversy, after widespread speculation that former President Macky Sall planned to leverage a 2016 constitutional amendment to extend his time in office.
Sonko, who founded and leads Pastef, was ultimately barred from running for the presidency himself after Senegal’s Supreme Court upheld a defamation conviction against him, and the Constitutional Court formally rejected his candidacy. Faye stepped in as the party’s replacement candidate, won the presidency, and immediately appointed Sonko as prime minister in a gesture of party unity. Today, that unity has collapsed, leaving the new prime minister to navigate both a ruling party split and pressing national challenges, including a growing national debt crisis that has put Senegal’s economic stability at risk.