Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s ethnicity is not fulani but serere.
Refound Senegal while respecting its “sovereignty”, but without denying cooperation with international partners, of which the country intends to remain a “safe and reliable” ally. It is on these premises that Bassirou Diomaye Faye intends to inaugurate his experience as president, an election not yet certified by the electoral commission (which meets today) but already widely recognized by the other candidates and by the outgoing executive of President Macky Sall.
Much of this anger coalesced around the arrest of leading opposition figure, 49-year-old Ousmane Sonko, in March 2021. A former tax inspector, Sonko founded the African Patriots of Senegal for Work, Ethics and Fraternity (Pastef) in 2014, was elected to the national assembly, and went on to contest the 2019 presidential election — coming third with 16 per cent of the vote.
Positioning themselves outside “the system,” Sonko and Pastef drew huge support among Senegalese youth, addressing long standing issues of unemployment and poverty in a country where a 5 per cent economic growth rate has failed to translate into better living conditions for the population.
Sall came to power in Senegal in 2012 and then in 2019 in what would be his second and final term under Senegalese law. However, Sall’s refusal to definitively state whether or not he would seek a third term — after amending the length of presidential term which Sall claimed “reset the clock” — coupled with what was seen as the instrumentalisation of state institutions to target dissenters and opposition fuelled public anger.
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