Senegal President Bassirou Faye has sacked Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and dissolved the government following months of tensions and a burgeoning economic crisis.
This was announced in a televised address on Friday by presidential aide Oumar Ba, who accused Mr Sonko of excessive personalisation.
Mr Ba, who read a presidential decree on television, did not give any information on the appointment of a new prime minister or what is supposed to follow the development.
“Faye has ended the duties of Ousmane Sonko… and consequently those of the ministers and secretaries of state who are members of the government,” he said.
Friction between the two political allies had emerged over an increasingly visible power struggle within Senegal’s ruling Patriotes Africains du Sénégal pour le Travail, l’éthique et la Fraternité (PASTEF) party, with tensions centring on who truly controlled the government, disagreements over economic policy, and IMF negotiations.
