It’s all kicking off in Dakar. President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has sacked Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and dissolved the entire government, throwing Senegal into fresh political chaos as debt talks with the IMF hang in the balance.

Well, that escalated quickly. Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye pulled the plug on his government on Friday, firing Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and sending all his ministers packing, cbinews.tv reports. The move comes after months of behind-the-scenes friction between the two former allies, and it couldn’t have landed at a worse time.

Senegal’s already neck-deep in a debt crisis and stuck in messy talks with the International Monetary Fund. According to a statement read out on state media by presidency secretary-general Oumar Samba Ba, all ministers have been dismissed. The outgoing cabinet will keep the lights on and handle day-to-day affairs for now.

This is quite the fallout. Sonko, a firebrand with massive youth support, actually backed Faye in the 2024 election after a defamation conviction barred him from running himself. Fast forward a year, and the bromance is dead. Sonko didn’t seem too rattled, mind. He hopped on social media after the news broke and posted: “Tonight I will sleep with a light heart in the Keur Gorgui neighbourhood,” referring to his home.

But the timing is brutal for Senegal’s economy. The IMF already froze its $1.8 billion lending programme after it emerged the country had misreported its debt. Senegal’s debt-to-GDP ratio now sits at a staggering 132% as of end-2024.Faye’s decision could drag out talks for a new IMF deal even further — and that deal is seen as crucial to getting the economy back on track.

Earlier on Friday, just hours before he got the boot, Finance Minister Cheikh Diba told parliament that Senegal hopes to restart IMF talks in the week of 8 June, with a goal to lock down key points by 30 June.Diba also dropped a bombshell on fuel subsidies. He warned they could blow past the 2026 budget by 1.15 trillion CFA francs — that’s about $2 billion — if oil hits $115 per barrel. He added that Sonko had blocked his push to hike fuel prices.The two also clashed on debt.

Sonko was dead against restructuring the country’s estimated $13 billion debt, which he claimed the IMF was pushing for. Faye, on the other hand, has kept his cards close to his chest. So what’s next for Sonko? That’s the big question. He was a wildly popular opposition figure under ex-President Macky Sall, whose move to delay the 2024 election sparked serious unrest. Now he’s out of government — but probably not out of politics.

Source: cbinews.tv

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