Senegal is a West African country whose capital is Dakar. The main language is Wolof. The culture values soutoura, which loosely means "discretion" or keeping up appearances.
Bassirou Diomaye Faye was swept to power in 2024 on a wave of anti-elite, anti-Western sentiment. His prime minister and mentor, Ousmane Sonko, is widely seen as the government's driving force. Sonko was barred from running for president after a conviction for sexual misconduct, a ruling he says was politically motivated. He promised to abandon the West African Economic Monetary Union, castigating it as an instrument of French control. Once in power, however, the union became a lifeline: Senegal borrowed ten times more from its pool of regional reserves than it did three years earlier.
Shortly after taking office, an audit showed the budget deficit for 2023 to be 12.3% of GDP, not the officially reported 4.9%, while public debt was reassessed at $13bn, a huge 99.7% of GDP, far more than was thought. The IMF reckons it has since reached 130% and has suspended its $1.8bn programme. Ratings agencies downgraded Senegal's bonds to junk status.
On March 13th 2026 the country narrowly avoided defaulting on its external debt after scraping up nearly half a billion dollars to pay holders of two Eurobonds. But it is still falling behind on payments to bilateral creditors and will struggle to meet deadlines for several more bonds set to come due over the next two years. Sonko rejected an IMF plan in November 2025, saying it offended Senegal's dignity.
The government has brought in new taxes, paused infrastructure projects, cancelled many public contracts and scrapped 19 government agencies. Much of the economy is informal, limiting the revenue that new taxes can raise. Senegal has begun exporting petrol and gas, which it hopes will boost earnings.
Teachers are on strike. In February 2026 university students protested; one was killed.
For children with short attention spans: boomerangs that don't come back.