Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko says he will not attend an investor forum in France due later this month despite an invitation by organisers, citing scheduling constraints.
Sonko was invited to be the guest of honour at the September 23 forum in Paris organised by French investment bank, BPI France. It would have been his first official trip to France as Senegal’s prime minister.
“Due to a scheduling impediment, the Prime Minister will be unable to honor this invitation, which he would have liked to attend in person,” Sonko’s office said in a statement, TRT Afrika reported.
He will instead be represented at the event by a member of the government, it added.
Other foreign trips
However the prime minister announced two other foreign trips later this month.
He will be at the United Arab Emirates this week for a four-day official visit where he is scheduled to meet President Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Sonko will then travel to Italy for a meeting with the Senegalese diaspora in Europe.
Senegal is among West African countries that are increasingly turning their backs on their former colonial ruler.
French military bases
Last month saw France formally hand back its last two military bases in Senegal, leaving Paris with no permanent camps in either West or Central Africa.
It followed Senegal's President Bassirou Diomaye Faye demand that France withdraws troops from the country by 2025.
Faye has insisted that Senegal will keep working with Paris.
Faye has also urged Paris to apologise for colonial atrocities, including the massacre on December 1, 1944, of dozens of African soldiers who had fought for France in World War II.
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