Senegal’s Faye launches a new party, formalising his split with Sonko

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports that Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has created a new political party, Kiiraay–The Republican Patriots, completing a public break with his former ally Ousmane Sonko. The party was launched on Saturday in Dakar and grew out of the Diomaye President coalition that supported Faye’s 2024 election victory. Faye presented the new formation as a broad, open movement built around public institutions, transparency and civic duty rather than personal loyalty.

The split marks a major turn in the alliance that brought Faye and Sonko to power. Both men rose through PASTEF, the opposition party led by Sonko. After Sonko was unable to run in the 2024 presidential election, PASTEF backed Faye, who campaigned as Sonko’s political stand-in and later appointed him prime minister. Al Jazeera says relations deteriorated over governance, economic policy and the direction of the ruling coalition, culminating in Faye dismissing Sonko as prime minister at the end of May and Sonko’s PASTEF staying out of the new cabinet.

The new party gives Faye a vehicle to build authority outside PASTEF’s grassroots network, but analysts cited by Al Jazeera warned the rupture could weaken governance at a sensitive moment. Senegal is trying to address economic strains, including public finance concerns linked to previously undisclosed liabilities under the former administration, while facing pressure to deliver jobs, anti-corruption reforms and greater national benefit from natural resources.

The rivalry leaves Faye and Sonko competing to define the reform agenda that mobilized many voters, especially young Senegalese. Analysts told Al Jazeera the dispute could risk legislative gridlock, complicate debt-related decisions and distract from Senegal’s regional role in West Africa.