Ousmane Sonko

Sonko was born at Thiès, to a father from Casamance and a mother from Khombole, took a master's degree in juridical science at Gaston Berger University in Saint-Louis in 1999, and worked for fifteen years as a tax inspector at Pikine.{cite:source/wikipedia-ousmane-sonko-en} In 2016 he exposed offshore tax-avoidance schemes and was dismissed for his whistleblowing; he set out his findings in his 2017 book on Senegal's oil and gas, and his manifesto in Solutions (2018).{cite:source/wikipedia-ousmane-sonko-en} He had founded PASTEF in January 2014, sat in the National Assembly from 2017 to 2022, and placed third in the 2019 presidential election with some 16 per cent of the vote.{cite:source/wikipedia-ousmane-sonko-en}

A massage-parlour employee's complaint in February 2021 led to Sonko's arrest and to protests in which fourteen people were reported killed; stripped of his parliamentary immunity, he was acquitted of rape in June 2023 but sentenced to two years for "corrupting youth", which barred his candidacy, and PASTEF was dissolved the following month.{cite:source/wikipedia-ousmane-sonko-en} He had meanwhile been elected mayor of Ziguinchor in 2022.{cite:source/wikipedia-ousmane-sonko-en} Released with Bassirou Diomaye Faye days before the March 2024 election, he saw Faye win in his place and appoint him prime minister on 3 April 2024.{cite:source/wikipedia-ousmane-sonko-en} After a public falling-out, Faye dismissed him on 22 May 2026, and on 26 May 2026 he was elected president of the National Assembly.{cite:source/wikipedia-ousmane-sonko-en}

On faith, everything the sources offer is structure and affiliation: the French infobox gives his religion as Islam (Sunni), Wikidata's single religion value is Islam, and the English and Arabic articles file him among Senegalese Muslims.{cite:source/wikipedia-ousmane-sonko-fr}{cite:source/wikidata-ousmane-sonko}{cite:source/wikipedia-ousmane-sonko-ar} The French text records his youth activism in the Association of Muslim Pupils and Students of Senegal and the Mouride khalifa-general's mediation, at his own request, that ended his 2023 hunger strike — a Muslim student milieu and a religious leader's good offices, neither of which names his school.{cite:source/wikipedia-ousmane-sonko-fr} One structured family only, so his faith is entered as unknown, with the Sunni reading preserved in the record.

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• {cite:source/wikipedia-ousmane-sonko-ar}
• {cite:source/wikipedia-ousmane-sonko-ur}
• {cite:source/wikipedia-ousmane-sonko-fr}
• {cite:source/wikidata-ousmane-sonko}