{"id":21121,"date":"2026-06-15T14:29:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T14:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/?p=21121"},"modified":"2026-06-15T14:29:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T14:29:24","slug":"senegals-sonko-softens-tone-on-debt-restructuring-as-imf-talks-due","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/21121\/senegals-sonko-softens-tone-on-debt-restructuring-as-imf-talks-due\/","title":{"rendered":"Senegal’s Sonko softens tone on debt restructuring as IMF talks due"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Senegal’s ousted prime minister, Ousmane Sonko, softened \u200chis tone on debt restructuring in an interview broadcast on Monday, saying he does not hold “rigid positions” on the issue, a departure from his previous staunch opposition to such a move.<\/p>\n

While he was dismissed by \u200bPresident Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who\u00a0dissolved the government\u00a0last month, lawmakers then voted to make \u200bSonko speaker of the National Assembly, giving him a powerful position to \u2060influence government policy.<\/p>\n

In his new role, Sonko could have considerable ability to obstruct Faye’s agenda, \u200bincluding potentially resisting reforms required for a new IMF programme. An IMF team is expected to \u200bresume talks this week over a new lending programme.<\/p>\n

In the interview with French outlets RFI and France 24, Sonko said policymakers must respond pragmatically to the country\u2019s mounting debt crisis, the result of misreported debt under \u200bformer President Macky Sall’s government.<\/p>\n

“We don’t hold rigid positions in the absolute sense. We are \u200bexamining the situation with clarity,” Sonko said, adding that any solution should “meet the requirements of the moment”.<\/p>\n

The comments\u00a0mark \u200ca \u2060shift\u00a0from his stance last November, when he said at a rally that the IMF was pushing for debt restructuring and that it would be a “disgrace”.<\/p>\n

The IMF suspended Senegal’s previous $1.8 billion lending programme after the misreported debt came to light.<\/p>\n

‘WE ARE NOT HERE TO OBSTRUCT’, SONKO SAYS<\/strong><\/p>\n

In \u200bthe interview published on \u200bMonday, Sonko said \u2060he had opposed “reckless restructuring”, arguing that it was not necessary because Senegal was meeting its debt repayment obligations and had good growth prospects. However, \u200bhe acknowledged that conditions have since worsened in part because of \u200bthe U.S.-Israeli\u00a0war \u2060with Iran.<\/p>\n

“Today, I believe we can assess developments step by step,” he said. “We are not here to obstruct.”<\/p>\n

Still, Sonko warned he would resist any approach that undermines Senegal’s long-term economic goals, saying measures \u2060focused \u200bsolely on short-term metrics would not be acceptable.<\/p>\n

The West \u200bAfrican country is grappling with debts that reached 132% of gross domestic product at the end of 2024, according to \u200bthe IMF.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senegal’s ousted prime minister, Ousmane Sonko, softened \u200chis tone on debt restructuring in an interview broadcast on Monday, saying he does not hold “rigid positions” on the issue, a departure from his previous staunch opposition to such a move. While he was dismissed by \u200bPresident Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who\u00a0dissolved the government\u00a0last month, lawmakers then voted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":4,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,33,27],"tags":[1758,1203,283],"class_list":["post-21121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-politics","category-west-africa","tag-bassirou-diomaye-faye","tag-ousmane-sonko","tag-senegal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21121"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21123,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21121\/revisions\/21123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}