Former Senegalese president Macky Sall returned to Dakar on Friday for a brief meeting with his successor, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, as part of his push to secure home backing for Macky Sall’s UN bid.
It was the first face to face encounter between the two men since Sall handed over power in April 2024, according to Africanews. The Senegalese presidency confirmed on X that Sall came to update Faye on the progress of his candidacy and promised to keep him informed at every stage of the process, a detail that gives Macky Sall’s UN bid an official domestic dimension it previously lacked.
Sall arrived at the Leopold Senghor military airport in Yoff at around 3pm and was received by more than 1,000 supporters who braved the heat to welcome him, as AGP Guinee reported citing Senegalese media. His party, the Alliance for the Republic, had mobilised the crowd, which followed his convoy toward the presidential palace with chants and motorbike horns.
The visit was short by design. APAnews reported that Sall planned to leave Senegal immediately after the audience, citing a packed international schedule tied to his campaign, though he promised to return later for a dedicated visit with party supporters. That brevity has not stopped Macky Sall’s UN bid from dominating conversation in Dakar.
Not everyone welcomed the trip. A collective representing victims of abuses linked to Sall’s presidency described the visit as an affront and demanded answers over deaths that occurred during his tenure, Africanews reported. The tension traces back to disputes over an alleged hidden debt scandal and a crackdown on supporters of the Pastef movement while Sall was in office.
The political cost was immediate. A presidential adviser, Alioune Ibnou Abitalib Sow, resigned on Friday in protest at the audience granted to Sall, according to AGP Guinee. The resignation points to friction inside Faye’s own camp, which has been strained since he dismissed Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, the leader of the ruling party.
Despite the controversy, Senegal has not yet formally endorsed Macky Sall’s UN bid. In March, Sall failed to win the African Union’s backing after twenty countries, including Senegal itself, opposed his candidacy, a setback that has made this week’s Dakar meeting more consequential.
Macky Sall’s UN bid has taken him to capitals worldwide in recent months. He met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on 29 June, and has also held talks with officials in Greece, France and the United States, as part of an intensive diplomatic campaign to build support ahead of the Security Council’s deliberations.
He is currently the only African candidate in the race to succeed António Guterres, whose second term as Secretary-General ends on 31 December 2026, NPR reported. The other declared candidates are Michelle Bachelet of Chile, MarÃa Fernanda Espinosa of Ecuador, Rafael Grossi of Argentina and Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica.
Under UN rules, the fifteen-member Security Council must recommend a candidate with at least nine votes and no veto from any of its five permanent members before the General Assembly formally appoints the next Secretary-General by majority vote. That process is expected to conclude between August and October this year, with the tenth Secretary-General due to take office on 1 January 2027.
Sall governed Senegal from 2012 to 2024 and has lived in Morocco since leaving office. Friday’s meeting marked his first public appearance in the country since then, and whatever emerges from the closed-door talks with Faye is likely to shape how far Macky Sall’s UN bid can travel in the months ahead. Whether the two men also touched on Senegal’s domestic politics remains unclear.
