Senegal's Faye forms new party, deepening split with Sonko
What's new: The move formalizes a months-long power struggle after Faye fired Sonko in May and amid a debt-reporting crisis.
Senegal President Bassirou Diomaye Faye launched a new political party in Dakar on Saturday, cementing his break with former Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko and the ruling Pastef movement that helped sweep him to power in 2024. Faye introduced the Kiiraay — Republican Patriots party and called it "the majority party in this country." Kiiraay means "shield" in Wolof. The split follows months of tension between the two former allies. Faye removed Sonko from the prime minister's post in May, but Sonko later became speaker of the National Assembly and still leads Pastef, which holds a large parliamentary majority. The rupture lands as Senegal faces a crisis over previously misreported government debt.