Senegal’s President pledges action on environment and women’s rights during second term

Senegalese President Macky Sall, said on Tuesday he would prioritise the environment, youth employment and women’s rights during his second term in office.

In an inaugural speech that followed an emphatic election victory in February, he promised “vigorous’’ environment action.

“I’m calling on everyone to shape a new Senegal: one with cleaner neighbourhoods, a zero-waste Senegal,’’ he said.

During Sall’s first term, Senegal’s economy grew more than six per cent per year as a modernisation programme produced a new airport, slick highways and a city built from scratch in scrubland outside the coastal capital Dakar.

Oil and gas production from new offshore fields is expected to keep the economy buoyant in the coming decade.

But high pollution and rising sea levels have raised concerns about climate change and the price of rapid development.

Senegal has long been viewed as the region’s most stable democracy, with peaceful transition of power since it gained independence from France in 1960.

But the two best-known opposition figures were banned from running in February because of corruption convictions that rights groups say were politically motivated.

Sall denies those claims.

Over 12 African heads of states attended his inauguration.