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Senegal : Between socio-economic emergencies and lawsuits ongoing of the old regime Spécial
octobre 17, 2024
527
Source : Sahel weather September 2024
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Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko presented Agenda 2050 in the presence of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye on October 14, 2024, after a month of intense political and socio-economic activity in September. Indeed, Senegal is still facing an exacerbation of the phenomenon of irregular immigration. In recent weeks, the news has been strongly marked by the sinking of pirogues carrying hundreds of Senegalese heading for Europe. Indeed, after being informed of the capsizing of a pirogue involved in illegal immigration in Mbour, the Senegalese Navy's Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) Niani launched a search, a joint operation conducted off the coast of Mbour by three naval units and a Spanish maritime patrol aircraft. These events took place on Sunday, September 8. A total of 26 bodies were recovered, including that of an 18-year-old schoolgirl. Although some twenty survivors were rescued, the exact number of migrants on board remains unknown.
Clandestine emigration dampens government communication efforts
After the bodies found on the Petite Côte, another thirty or so in a very advanced state of depravity were found in a pirogue 70 km off the coast of Dakar. Senegal is also facing flooding during the winter season, with major damage as seen in Touba, where torrential rains in September caused immeasurable material damage and the death of two people. The heavy rains reached 140 mm, forcing the evacuation of around a hundred flooded homes in the space of a few hours, in the vicinity of the grand mosque. To help the people of Touba, the Mouride dahiras of Dakar launched an appeal for help; an appeal to which the mayor of Dakar Barthélémy Dias responded by mobilizing high-powered motorcycle pumps and a qualified technical team to free people from the stagnant water that was restricting their movement.
In another development, Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye announced the dissolution of the National Assembly in his address to the nation on September 12, 2024. Article 87 of the Constitution gives him the prerogative to dissolve the National Assembly. This article states: "The President of the Republic may, after obtaining the opinion of the Prime Minister and the President of the National Assembly, dissolve the National Assembly by decree. However, dissolution may not take place during the first two years of a legislature. The dissolution decree sets the date of the ballot for the election of deputies. The ballot shall take place at least sixty (60) days and at most ninety (90) days after the date of publication of the said decree...". In accordance with the aforementioned provisions, the President of Senegal has set the date for the legislative elections scheduled for Sunday November 17, 2024. Unsurprisingly, the opposition, which according to Jean- Baptiste Tine, "is not ready to face the ballot box", was quick to react, firstly by rejecting the meeting organized between the Minister of the Interior and Public Security and political players including the Alliance for Transparency in Legislative Elections (ATEL), and then by organizing itself into a coalition.
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In doing so, the opposition announced the creation of the "Samm Sa Kaddu Sauver le Sénégal" political coalition, whose members include movements and parties such as the Parti de l'Unité et du Rassemblement (PUR), Alliance Républicaine pour la Citoyenneté (ARC), Taxawu Sénégal, les Serviteurs, parti Républicain pour le Progrès (PRP), Agir and Gueum sa Bopp. The aim of this coalition would be to bring to the next legislature the main concerns of the Senegalese people in the face of the many unfulfilled promises made by the Bassirou Diomaye Faye regime, which is making daily life increasingly difficult in the face of rising prices for staple foods and rising unemployment. What's more, Idrissa Seck is said to be negotiating a future coalition with the PDS and APR, despite the departure of several of his party's leaders.
At the same time, the new regime is continuing to criticize Macky Sall's governance, especially as regards the instrumentalization of the justice system. Already, on September 04, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, in the context of "accountability", said: "If we have to pull them up by their toes, we'll do it so that they come back. In the days to come, dozens of them will give an account." It is with this in mind that several ministers of the former regime, such as the former Minister of Urban Planning, Abdoulaye Saydou Sow, have been banned from leaving the country. Similarly, Cheikhouna Keïta, the former head of the Office Central de Répression du Trafic Illicite des Stupéfiants, was arrested at the request of the public prosecutor for spreading false news.
"President Macky Sall's regime has lied to the people and partners by falsifying figures to give an economic image that has nothing to do with reality," revealed Ousmane Sonko during his face-to-face meeting with the Senegalese press on September 26. It was an opportunity for the Prime Minister to take stock of the management of the country by Macky Sall and his former government, and what he calls the "financial carnage" they left to Bassirou Diomaye Faye's hard- pressed regime.
More specifically, the purpose of the meeting was to take stock of the current state of public finances, and also to give an account of the country's management prior to the election of President Diomaye Faye. Hence the urgent need to review the contracts signed with Senegal's partners, and renegotiate them if necessary. In any case, this is what the President of the Republic is suggesting, to be consistent with his election campaign promise.