A vendor sells merchandise in support of Ousmane Sonko, Senegal's opposition leader, and Bassirou Diomaye Faye, presidential candidate, outside the venue of a news conference in Dakar, Senegal, on Friday, March 15, 2024. Ousmane Sonko and Bassirou Diomaye Faye were released after lawmakers approved amnesty for crimes linked to political protests between 2021 and 2024. Photographer: Annika Hammerschlag/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Analyses / Afrique/s
27 mai 2026
Senegal’s political rift: president faye and prime minister sonko’s diverging paths
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Caroline Roussy
Directrice de recherche à l’IRIS, responsable du Programme Afrique/s
On Friday, May 22, Ousmane Sonko was relieved of his duties as Prime Minister, a move that has ignited a potential political crisis in Senegal. For months, Sonko had described their dynamic as a “soft cohabitation”—a curious term given the implications of cohabitation, especially considering that he and President Bassirou Diomaye Faye emerged from the same political sphere and, as recently as 2024, displayed profound camaraderie.
An ostensibly unbreakable bond
The relationship between these two political figures, once described as
