Yesterday at the Principal Hospital, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko paid tribute to former head of government Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne, who died in France last Friday.

Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne, a candidate in the presidential election on 24 March, died in France on Friday, aged 65, following an illness. He fell ill during the election campaign and was evacuated to France for treatment on the eve of the vote.

The ceremony was attended by the Ministers of African Integration and Foreign Affairs, the Interior, former ministers, MPs and religious authorities, among others, according to Aps.

Cheikh Diop Dionne, brother of the deceased, praised the support of the Head of State, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, in covering the cost of repatriating the body. Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko said that the Head of State had asked him to come and represent him at the ceremony to raise the body when he was due to perform the Eid el fitr prayer in his home town of Ziguinchor (south).

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Mr Sonko pointed out that as soon as the death was announced, the President of the Republic, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, gave instructions that everything necessary should be done to repatriate the body. « This is a duty », said Ousmane Sonko. He paid tribute to Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne, a « very great servant » of the State, who held the « heavy office » of Prime Minister for 5 years. According to him, Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne, as head of government and as a political player, never spoke beyond political adversity or the debate of ideas. Ousmane Sonko prayed for the respite of the soul of the deceased.

Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne was a technocrat who fell into politics as a result of his close and long-standing relationship with former President Macky Sall.

He had long played a leading role alongside the former President of the Republic, for whom he was a staunch defender and a real fuse as Prime Minister.

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Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne ended up distancing himself from Macky Sall after the latter chose Amadou Ba as the Benno bokk yaakaar Coalition’s candidate in the presidential election on 24 March.

Macky Sall says he is « saddened to learn of the death of former Prime Minister Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne ». « Senegal has lost an executive of great value and I have lost a long-standing companion. My heartfelt condolences go to his widow Caty and his family. I salute his memory. May his soul rest in peace », he wrote.

His declining health had been apparent to some during the election campaign. Rumours of his death quickly made the rounds on the web before being denied by those close to him.

Born on 22 September 1959 in Gossas, in the Fatick region, Mr Dionne, an economist and computer scientist by training, was one of the most trusted figures of the leader of the Alliance for the Republic (APR), of whom he was twice Director of Cabinet, firstly at the Prime Minister’s Office from 2005 to 2007, and then at the National Assembly from 2007 to 2008, under the regime of Abdoulaye Wade.

A member of the Alliance for the Republic (APR), the former official of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) played a leading role for around ten years.

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In the July 2017 legislative elections, he led the presidential party’s list, which emerged victorious, taking 125 of the 165 seats at stake.

Two years later, Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne became campaign director for candidate Macky Sall in the presidential election, which the outgoing head of state won in the first round with 58.27% of the vote. His time as head of government coincided with the implementation of the Emerging Senegal Plan (Pse), which became the benchmark for the country’s public policies.

 From May 2019, following the abolition of the office of Prime Minister in Senegal, he continued to coordinate the government as Minister of State, Secretary General of the Presidency of Senegal, from 6 April 2019 to 28 October 2020, when he left the government.

In 2021, he embarked on an international consultancy before being appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Industrial Bank for Commerce and Industry (Bicis) in April 2023, from which he resigned on 25 September of the same year after deciding to stand in the presidential election of 25 February 2024.