Senegal president dissolves government

Senegalese President Macky Sall on Wednesday dissolved his 32-strong government team after 18 months, an official source said without elaborating.

Presidential spokesman Abdou Latif Coulibaly said Sall had signed a decree to that effect but gave neither a reason for the move nor a date for the formation of a new cabinet.

"While awaiting the putting in place of a new government, outgoing ministers and secretaries of state are charged with carrying out their ongoing affairs," a presidential statement read.

Sall had earlier presided as usual over cabinet business without giving any indication he was about to dissolve a government formed in April of last year, weeks after he was re-elected to a second term.

Thereafter, Sall abolished the office of prime minister in what critics saw as a bid to wield more power himself.

In a separate decree Wednesday, Sall abolished the functions of the secretary general to the presidency Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dione, previously his prime minister and a longtime close associate.

Extending his clearing of the decks still further, Sall also dismissed another former Prime Minister Aminata Toure from her post as chair of the country's economic, social and environmental council (CESE).

Toure, a former justice minister, women's rights and anti-corruption campaigner, is believed by some observers to harbour presidential ambitions.