DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — Senegal 's president on Monday appointed a former banking executive as the new prime minister after his predecessor was sacked last week, a move that comes at a particularly tense moment as the African country grapples with debt and an internal crisis in the ruling party.
According to a statement read on national television, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye named Ahmadou Al Aminou Lo as the head of government, replacing Ousmane Sonko.
Sonko was sacked on Friday, after months of simmering tensions between him and the president. The sacking triggered the resignation of all the members of the government and its dissolution.
Lo will now have to form a new government. He was formerly an executive at the Central Bank of West African States, where he played a significant role in shaping monetary and economic policies at the regional level. He also served as state minister to the president and secretary-general of Sonko's government.
Faye and Sonko had openly disagreed on key policies over the past few months, including about the negotiations for a loan from the International Monetary Fund. Earlier in May, Faye said Sonko would only keep his job if he did it properly.
The two were former allies from the party known as Pastef, an acronym from its French name, Patriotes Africains du Sénégal pour le Travail, l’Éthique et la Fraternité.
Pastef had ridden into office in the March 2024 parliamentary election after a fierce campaign against the then-ruling party, Alliance pour la République, and widespread speculation that former President Macky Sall wanted to use a 2016 constitutional change to revise his term in office.
Sonko, who heads Pastef, was barred from running after a defamation conviction was upheld by Senegal’s supreme court, and the Constitutional Court dismissed his candidacy. Faye ran instead of Sonko, and subsequently appointed Sonko as prime minister.
AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
FILE - Senegal President Bassirou Diomaye Faye attends the Africa Forward Summit at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, May 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)
PUERTO PLATA, Dominican Republic (AP) — Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco was declared criminally responsible for the sexual and psychological abuse of a minor, but he will not serve a sentence for it, a Dominican judge ruled Monday.
Judge José Antonio Núñez, in his decision, considered that Franco had been the victim of extortion and blackmail by the minor's mother, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexually trafficking her daughter.
“It seems contradictory to declare criminal responsibility and at the same time exempt him from punishment. The court has granted Wander Franco a judicial pardon due to the particular circumstances that made him a material victim, but not a legal one,” explained Núñez.
The judge justified the judicial pardon as a “logical and legal reasoning.”
“Thank God for everything,” Franco expressed as he effusively embraced his mother, Nancy Aybar, and other family members who accompanied him in court.
Franco was arrested in January 2024 after being accused of having a four-month relationship with a girl who was 14 at the time and transferring thousands of dollars to her mother to consent to the illegal relationship.
After the ruling, Franco left the courthouse alongside his lawyer, Teodosio Jáquez, and briefly answered reporters’ questions, saying, “I feel calm,” and asking his fans to “continue supporting me and trusting in me.”
Franco also said he personally had not contacted the Rays but that his lawyers surely had.
“We are aware of today’s verdict in the Wander Franco trial and will conclude our investigation at the appropriate time,” Major League Baseball said in a statement.
Franco attorney Jáquez said: “We don’t have the physical sentence in our hands, but he was exempted from punishment because the president of the court established that he was also a victim and because he is exempted from punishment through judicial pardon."
The full sentencing will be June 16.
“When we have the full sentence in hand, we will give you more details," Jáquez said. "He was exempted from punishment and we think that’s fine, but we need to have the sentence in hand.
In November 2021, Franco signed an 11-year, $182 million contract with the Rays, but his career was upended when authorities in the Dominican Republic announced in August 2023 that they were investigating him for an alleged relationship with a minor. Franco was 22 at the time.
Six months after his arrest, Tampa Bay placed him on the restricted list, which cut off the pay he had been receiving while on administrative leave.
AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB
Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco, center, leaves court after his trial on charges of sexually abusing a minor in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ricardo Hernandez)
Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco leaves court after his trial on charges of sexually abusing a minor in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ricardo Hernandez)
Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco gestures in court at the end of his trial on charges of sexually abusing a minor in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ricardo Hernandez)
Tampa Bay Rays shortstop Wander Franco gestures in court during his trial on charges of sexually abusing a minor in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, Monday, May 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ricardo Hernandez)
