Former Senegalese president Macky Sall made his first return to the West African nation since leaving office in April 2024, meeting his successor President Bassirou Diomaye Faye in Dakar on Friday in a visit that was as politically charged as it was diplomatically significant.
The primary purpose of the meeting, according to the Senegalese presidency, was for Sall to brief Faye on his candidacy to become the next United Nations secretary-general and to seek his country's official backing. Sall, who governed Senegal between 2012 and 2024 and has since been living in Morocco, was nominated earlier this year by Burundi — which currently holds the rotating African Union presidency — for the UN's top post. The presidency said Sall "committed to regularly updating the Head of State at each step of the procedure," signalling that the two men intend to maintain contact as the candidacy progresses.
Sall's return drew a crowd of more than 1,000 supporters, who gathered in the afternoon heat at a military airport in Dakar to welcome him, with the former president greeting the crowd from atop a vehicle. He departed the country before 8:00 pm local time. Yet the visit exposed deep divisions within the current political establishment. One of President Faye's own advisors, Alioune Ibnou Abitalib Sow, announced his resignation in protest, writing on social media that Sall "is responsible for a large part of the troubles the country is facing today" and that Senegalese citizens had died without their families receiving answers.
The controversy stems from serious allegations against Sall's final years in power. The current government has accused him of violent political repression that resulted in dozens of deaths, as well as concealing unfavourable economic data. A civil collective that has campaigned for accountability over those deaths described the visit as an "incident" and demanded that justice for victims remain central to any political engagement with the former leader.
The episode also highlights the fragile state of Faye's own political coalition, which has been under strain since he dismissed prime minister Ousmane Sonko, once a close and powerful ally. The decision to receive Sall — a figure whose legacy remains deeply contested at home — adds another layer of tension to an already fractured governing environment. How Faye balances national reconciliation, political accountability, and diplomatic pragmatism in the months ahead will be closely watched both in Dakar and beyond.