Macky Sall

Biography

Macky Sall was born in 1961 and grew up in Fatick. He trained as a geological engineer at the University of Dakar and at the French Institute of Petroleum's engineering school in Paris. Briefly drawn to a Maoist movement as a student, he joined Abdoulaye Wade's Senegalese Democratic Party in the late 1980s and worked on the campaign that brought Wade to power in 2000.

Under Wade he was a presidential adviser on energy and mines, briefly head of the national oil company Petrosen, minister of mines and energy, and minister of the interior. He was elected mayor of Fatick in 2002 and in July 2004 became prime minister, running Wade's re-election campaign in 2007. After the 2007 legislative election he became president of the National Assembly, but a quarrel with Wade's camp, set off when he summoned Wade's son Karim to a hearing, led the assembly to remove him in November 2008. He quit the party and on 1 December 2008 founded the Alliance for the Republic.

Sall came second in the first round of the 2012 presidential election and defeated Wade in the runoff on 25 March 2012. He was re-elected in 2019. His government completed major infrastructure such as a new airport, highways, a regional express railway and a national stadium, and he helped force out Yahya Jammeh in the Gambia in 2017. He chaired the African Union in 2022-2023.

His second term was marked by repression of the opposition and the 2023-2024 protests that followed the conviction of Ousmane Sonko. In February 2024 he postponed the presidential election, a move the Constitutional Council struck down. The vote went ahead in March, and he left office on 2 April 2024. In 2026 he became a candidate for UN secretary-general.