A New Start in Senegal, Daily Brief April 8, 2024

There’s hopeful news from Senegal, which may finally be turning the page on three years of political unrest.

With the swearing in of Bassirou Diomaye Faye as president last week, the country has a new opportunity to get back on track.

It’s been an incredible few weeks for Faye. Less than a month ago, he was still in prison on a bogus charge related to a Facebook post. That was in the context of the former government’s crackdown on the opposition, which included the forced dissolution of Faye’s political party last year.

On March 24, he won the national election in the first round of voting, and now, age 44, he’s Senegal’s youngest ever president and Africa’s youngest elected head of state. It marks a kind of generational shift. As BBC News notes: “In a region where a large majority of the population are under 30, his victory offers hope to those young people frustrated by a lack of economic opportunities, with old elites seemingly clinging to power.” Faye has named a “breakaway government,” with his key backer and mentor, Ousmane Sonko, as prime minister. Sonko was also released from prison just last month, caught up in the anti-opposition crackdown.

This whiplash reversal in Senegalese politics hopefully marks the end of a period of violent turmoil. Over the past three years, the government under former President Macky Sall responded to rising opposition with delaying tactics and brutal force. Dozens were killed in protests, and over 1,000 were arrested for legitimate opposition activities, like Faye and Sonko.

The upheaval also rocked Senegal’s reputation as a stable democracy in a region blighted by military coups.

Now, there’s hope the country will reverse its democratic decline – if Faye and Sonko put protecting and promoting human rights at the core of their efforts.

With the lessons of the past three years of state crackdown fresh in everyone’s mind, the importance of things like defending freedom of expression and freedom of assembly should be obvious.

There also needs to be accountability for past abuses. Security forces have quite literally got away with murder in recent years, and that needs to stop.

There’s an international dimension to all of this, as well. If the new leadership makes human rights a priority, it would not only help the people of Senegal but also be a signal for west Africa generally – a beacon of hope for people in a troubled region.