Senegalese Prime Minister Amadou Ba has unveiled a new government with fourteen new faces, after President Macky Sall appointed him to the post on Saturday, reported The MSN.
The government unveiled by the new prime minister has 38 ministers, including eight women. The list includes Oulimata Sarr taking over as economy minister, Mamadou Ba as finance minister, Aissata Tall Sall as foreign minister and Sidiki Kaba as head of the armed forces.
On Saturday, Sall appointed Amadou Ba as the new Senegalese prime minister, a role he had abolished back in 2019. The opposition and civil society groups decried the president’s move, calling it as an attempt to seize more power. Last year, President Sall cited his duties as the African Union’s current chairman to justify the restoration of the post but the position remained vacant.
The 61-year-old Ba previously served as Economy and Finance Minister from 2013 to 2019 and Foreign Minister until 2020 under Sall.
The moves follow July’s parliamentary elections that Sall’s ruling coalition narrowly won, while losing its absolute majority.
In a televised nationwide address on Friday, Sall said the new prime minister would be responsible to tackle the rising cost of living.
“Measures to reduce the cost of living and support employment and entrepreneurship for young people, the fight against floods and costly rents will remain the highest of priorities for me,” the Senegalese president said.
Ba echoed the president’s words on Saturday, saying that he major priorities for the new government will be improving household purchasing power, taming inflation, security, housing, vocational training, employment and entrepreneurship.
Sall, 60, was elected as the Senegalese president in 2012 for seven years then re-elected in 2019 for another five-year term. Concerns over his rule persist, as the critics as well as the opposition accuse him of wanting to break the two-term limit and run again for another term in 2024.
