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Africa Live: I will govern with humility - Senegal's Faye - BBC News Africa Live: I will govern with humility - Senegal's Faye - BBC News
(32 minutes later)
Thomas Naadi
BBC News, Dakar
Senegal’s President-elect Bassirou Diomaye Faye has pledged to govern with humility and transparency, in his first speech after Sunday's poll. Zambia has agreed to a revised deal to restructure more than $3.5bn (£2.7bn) of its international bonds with private investors.
Mr Faye's main rival from the governing coalition, Amadou Ba, has already conceded defeat, setting the stage for the 44-year-old political newcomer to become the youngest president in the country's history. Under the agreement, creditors will forego $840m in claims and Zambia will continue with an ongoing $2.5bn IMF cash flow relief programme.
‘’By electing me, the Senegalese people have chosen to break with the past," he told journalists on Monday. The deal follows months of tensions between China and other creditors over the proposed terms of the agreement.
"I promise to govern with humility and transparency." Zambia had borrowed billions of dollars after the Covid pandemic to cushion the economy.
One of his main priorities as president will be "national reconciliation" following three years of unrest and a political crisis in the country, Mr Faye added. President Hakainde Hichilema has hailed the deal as "a historic milestone".
He also vowed to "fight corruption at every level", rebuild institutions and tackle the cost-of-living crisis. It's an important step in the country's effort to restructure its debt after defaulting in 2020.
Mr Faye thanked outgoing President Macky Sall for helping to conduct a successful poll. Monday's development follows a series of delays that had made Zambia a symbol of the failure of a G20 initiative for faster solutions to debt crises in poorer countries.
The Constitutional Council is yet to officially announce the final results, but there are celebrations across the country. The initiative, known as the G20 Common Framework, was launched in 2020 to provide relief to low-income countries dealing with huge debt.
The provisional results put Mr Faye in a strong lead with about 53.7% and Mr Ba with 36.2%. The implementation of the deal would make Zambia the first country to achieve debt restructuring under the G20 framework.
His victory comes less than two weeks after he was released from jail.
Read more:
From jailed unknown to Africa's youngest president
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