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When #Senegal’s government uncovered $13 billion in hidden, unrecorded debt left behind by former President Macky Sall’s regime, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko led debt audit revealed part of the national debt had been concealed, prompting the International Monetary Fund, IMF to immediately freeze and suspend its $1.8 billion lending programme. Then disagreements emerged regarding the handling of this issue. President Faye insisted on a pragmatic, compromise-driven path. He was willing to accept IMF-mandated austerity measures, including politically sensitive cuts to energy and fuel subsidies, to steady the economy and unlock the frozen funds to get more funding from IMF. Prime Minister Sonko declined this approach and instead advocated for a sovereignist approach. Sonko fiercely opposed bowing to foreign lenders. He resisted cutting subsidies, imposing taxes and demanded a renegotiation of oil, gas and mining contracts with multinational companies. Then a complete deadlock in the government. Their disagreements also extend to the handling of legal cases. Several former officials who served under President Macky Sall are accused of mismanagement and involvement in the political violence that claimed dozens of lives between 2021 and 2024. President Faye favored a more cautious, reconciled approach. Fearing that aggressive prosecutions of the former regime would destabilize the state, fracture the security apparatus and alienate key institutional actors, Faye resisted hardline judicial purges. As Prime Minister, Sonko pushed heavily for accountability, retributive justice, demanding that the amnesty law (passed by Sall's regime to shield his officials upon exit) be repealed so that Sall's former ministers, police chiefs and judicial officials could be tried for corruption, financial mismanagement and the deaths of youth protesters. Ultimately, the government became entirely dysfunctional. Faye used his executive power to reclaim sole control of the state, firing Sonko to build a government in his own image. By securing the second-highest political office in the country, Sonko has effectively flipped the power dynamic. He went from a subordinate role inside the executive branch to leading an independent branch of government. Faye will find his executive powers severely limited by a hostile legislature, and a ruling party that is not his own, leaving him with no choice but to wait until November 2026 to legally dissolve parliament. Source: Local sources, @France24 (Debt crisis).