Who is Ousmane Sonko? Biography

Updated 19 May 2026

Biography of Ousmane Sonko, Prime Minister of Senegal: birth and origins, education, tax-inspector career, anti-corruption rise, PASTEF and the path to power.

Ousmane Sonko is a Senegalese politician who has served as Prime Minister of Senegal since April 2024 and who leads the PASTEF party.^[3] A former tax inspector turned anti-corruption campaigner, he rose in under a decade from civil servant to the most influential figure in Senegalese politics.

Birth and origins

Sonko was born on 15 July 1974 in Thiès, in western Senegal, which makes him 51 years old in 2026.^[1] He grew up between Sébikhotane, near Dakar, and the southern Casamance region, his family’s home area.^[2]

Education

He earned a master’s degree in public law from the Université Gaston Berger in Saint-Louis in 1999, then trained at the École nationale d’administration (ENA) in Dakar, which prepared him for a career as a tax inspector.^[1]

Career as a tax inspector

For roughly fifteen years Sonko worked as a tax and revenue inspector. In 2005 he helped found a union for tax-administration staff. In 2016 he was dismissed from the civil service after publicly accusing Aliou Sall — the brother of then-President Macky Sall — of tax fraud. The dismissal turned him into a national symbol of the fight against corruption.^[2]

Political rise

Sonko founded PASTEF in 2014, won a seat in parliament in 2017, and finished third in the 2019 presidential election with about 15.7% of the vote.^[2] He became Mayor of Ziguinchor in 2022. Barred from the 2024 presidential race by a defamation conviction, he threw his support behind Bassirou Diomaye Faye under the slogan “Diomaye moy Sonko” (“Diomaye is Sonko”).^[2] Faye won the March 2024 election, and Sonko was appointed Prime Minister on 3 April 2024.^[3]

Read more: PASTEF explained and Faye vs Sonko: who really runs Senegal?.