DAKAR — Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye dismissed Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko on Friday night, triggering the resignation of all government members and the dissolution of the government. Oumar Samba Ba, the secretary general of the government, announced the firing during a late-night broadcast.

The dismissal followed months of tension between Faye and Sonko, former allies from the Pastef party, which stands for Patriotes Africains du Sénégal pour le Travail, l'Éthique et la Fraternité. The two men had disagreed on key policies, including the negotiation of a loan from the International Monetary Fund. Earlier this month, Faye said Sonko would only remain prime minister if he performed his duties properly, after Sonko criticized him.

"Praise be to Allah. Tonight I will sleep with a light heart in the Keur Gorgui neighborhood," Sonko wrote in a post on X after his dismissal.

Pastef defeated the former ruling party, Alliance pour la République, in the first round of the March 2024 election. That campaign followed widespread speculation that former President Macky Sall, who led Senegal from 2012 to 2024, wanted to use a 2016 constitutional change to revise his term in office. Sall did not contest the election after violence erupted in Senegal, with clashes between security forces and supporters of Sonko leading to at least 16 deaths and leaving several people injured.

Ahead of that election, Senegal's supreme court upheld a defamation conviction against Sonko, and the Constitutional Court dismissed his presidential candidacy. Faye ran for president in his place and, after winning, appointed Sonko as prime minister.