Senegal will summon former President Macky Sall to court following revelations of financial irregularities in the country’s treasury records during his tenure, a government spokesman announced on Friday.
Sall is accused of overseeing a “catastrophic” mismanagement of public funds after an independent audit report challenged official figures from his administration, significantly increasing both debt and the public deficit.
Currently residing in Morocco since leaving office last year, Sall has dismissed the controversy surrounding the report as politically motivated.
Government spokesman Moustapha Sarre alleged that Sall, who led Senegal from 2012 to 2024, “could even be considered the leader of a criminal gang.”
“He will inevitably face justice. He bears primary responsibility for the extremely serious acts that were committed,” Sarre told RFM radio, emphasizing that legal action was unavoidable.
The audit report, published on February 12, uncovered significant accounting discrepancies, including a revised 2023 budget deficit of 12.3%—more than double the 4.9% previously reported under Sall’s leadership.
President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, elected in March, has vowed to distance his administration from the practices of the Sall era.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, a longtime critic of Sall, had pledged last September to investigate what he described as “widespread corruption” under the previous government.
In recent months, several former officials have been arrested and charged, including a lawmaker closely associated with Sall, who was detained on Thursday for fraud and money laundering.
