Former President of Senegal Macky Sall today criticized Western countries for "abandoning Africa" in the fight against terrorism, and rejected the conclusions of an internal audit that says there is a hidden debt.
"Africa has been left to its fate to face the challenges of terrorism, whether in the Sahel region, or in the Horn of Africa, or even in Southern Africa, in Mozambique," Sall said in a speech at the Future Resilience Forum, which took place in London with the aim of finding solutions to threats, climate change and other global challenges.
According to the financial information agency Bloomberg, Macky Sall said: "The spread of terrorism on the continent is not just an African issue, it would be a mistake to believe that it is up to Africans to resolve this issue."
For the former Senegalese president, United Nations peacekeeping missions "are basically ineffective and inadequate for the situation on the ground", therefore failing to resolve security problems in Africa.
"The mandates are not there, the means are not there, and what is really needed is to have African troops operating within the framework of the African peace and security architecture, with the financial and logistical support of the United Nations and other partners such as the European Union ", defended the former head of state.
Although Senegal has generally been spared the insurgencies affecting its neighbors, its troops have come to support the Malian army, first as part of African military support, and later as part of the United Nations mission in that country.
The Sahel region has been greatly affected by conflict, with three countries (Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso) now being dominated by military junta that took power through coups d'état.
During his stay in London, Macky Sall also gave an interview on Bloomberg television to deny the conclusions of an audit of public accounts, commissioned by the new Prime Minister, Ousmane Sonko, and which reveals the existence of more debt and deficit than one that was accounted for in public accounts.
"I regret the prime minister's comments, which are completely false and have led to a downgrade of Senegal's rating," Sall said in the first response to the release of the audit at the end of September, which stated that the average public debt ratio it was 76.3% in the five years of Sall's mandate, and not the 65.9% recorded, in addition to a deficit of more than 10% of GDP at the end of last year, more than double that reported in public accounts.
Based in Morocco since leaving power, Macky Sall argued that it is not possible to finance the economic development of African countries without taking on debt, but rejected that the figures presented were not true.
"We cannot get it into our heads that we can develop without debt, that is not possible, but we cannot confuse borrowing to finance development with over-indebtedness", highlighted the former governor, pointing out the financing of highways and the construction of the city of Diamniadio, near Dakar, to decongest the capital.
Following the release of the audit, the financial rating agency Moody's downgraded the country's rating to B1, four levels below the investment recommendation.
Senegal, which secured financing of 1.8 billion dollars, around 1.6 billion euros, from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last year, is on the verge of becoming a major oil and gas producer, with the economy growing 6% this year despite a third of the 18 million inhabitants living in poverty.
In June, Senegal issued debt worth $750 million, €687 million, under a comprehensive plan that envisages investments of $30.5 billion (€28 billion) over the next five years to finance the nation's development. on the west African coast, and which is the closest continental country to Cape Verde.
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