Hommam Al Nassim 
Senegal’s new president, Basiro Diomaye Faye, has appointed his biggest backer in the election, Ousmane Sonko, as prime minister, one of the most vocal opponents of former Senegalese President Macky Sall.
“I understand the importance of the trust that President Faye has placed in me,” Sonko, 49, said on RTS, adding that he would form the new government “in the coming hours.”
Sonko was arrested in July 2023 on charges of “calling for disobedience”, and the Constitutional Council rejected his candidacy for the presidency in January, after which he supported the candidacy of his assistant Baciro Diomay Faye, who has been suspended since April 2023 on charges of “contempt of the judiciary” after broadcasting a message critical of the judiciary.
The two men were released from prison in mid-March under an amnesty law proposed by President Macky Sall as part of measures to “reconcile” Senegalese, and thousands of Dakar residents celebrated their freedom.
Faye won the March 24 presidential election with 54.28 percent of the vote, the first time since Senegal’s independence in 1960 that an opposition has won the presidency in the first round.
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