President Bassirou Diomaye Faye takes over the regional bloc as Senegal also wins the ECOWAS Commission presidency for the first time
Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has been elected Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Authority of Heads of State and Government, succeeding Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio.
Faye was elected on Sunday at the 69th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Authority, held in Sierra Leone.
Bio had assumed the chairmanship in June 2025 after taking over from Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who handed over leadership of the bloc at the 67th Ordinary Session held in Abuja.
Nigeria was represented at Sunday’s summit by Vice-President Kashim Shettima, who stood in for Tinubu.
As ECOWAS chairman, the 46-year-old Faye will oversee the affairs of the organisation for one year, at a critical period for the 15-member bloc, which continues to grapple with insecurity, democratic setbacks, and strained relations with Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, the three countries that recently withdrew from ECOWAS.
Senegal secures ECOWAS Commission presidency for first time
In a second diplomatic win for Senegal, General Birame Diop, the country’s former Minister of the Armed Forces, was elected President of the ECOWAS Commission for the 2026 to 2030 term, succeeding Gambian diplomat Omar Touray, whose four-year tenure began in July 2022.
It marks the first time Senegal has been elected to preside over the Commission since the bloc was created in 1975.
Senegal’s nomination of Diop followed ECOWAS’s decision at its 68th Ordinary Session in Abuja in December 2025 to entrust the country with leading the Commission for the 2026 to 2030 term. Diop, 65, a retired Air Force general born in Thies, Senegal, brings over three decades of military and diplomatic experience to the role.
He previously served as Chief of the General Staff of Senegal’s Armed Forces, Chief of Staff to the President, and Chief of the Air Force, and trained at the Royal Air School in Marrakesh, Air University in the United States, and the École de Guerre in Paris.
Diop’s international profile includes a stint as Military Adviser in the United Nations Department of Peace Operations, where he succeeded Uruguay’s Lieutenant General Carlos Humberto Loitey, and earlier service as deputy and chief of air operations with the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo between 2002 and 2003.
Faye pledges reconciled and united West Africa
The Senegalese presidency said in a statement that collective security, economic sovereignty and fidelity to the bloc’s founding principles would chart the course of Faye’s term.
“It is with humility that I welcome the trust placed in our country, called to the presiding presidency of ECOWAS,” Faye said. “I thank my peers, Heads of State and Government, for this mark of trust and for the spirit of fraternity that presided over our work.”
Faye congratulated Diop on his election to the Commission presidency.
“I congratulate General of the Army Birame Diop, elected to the presidency of the Commission, and assure him of my full support,” he said.
He pledged to work towards a “reconciled and united” West Africa and said as incoming chairman he would prioritise operationalising the regional counter-terrorism force, strengthening resource sharing among member states, improving ECOWAS’s financial independence, and enhancing support for communities affected by crises.
Faye’s rise from tax inspector to regional leader
Faye, a former tax inspector, won Senegal’s 2024 presidential election on an anti-establishment platform promising sweeping political and economic reforms, anti-corruption measures and greater national sovereignty.
At the time, he was one of the youngest elected presidents on the continent, and his rapid rise from a relatively unknown opposition figure to head of state was widely seen as a rebuke of Senegal’s traditional political establishment.
His election as ECOWAS chairman comes as the bloc works to restore cohesion and sustain diplomatic engagement with the three Sahel nations that have exited the organisation, amid continuing regional security and economic integration challenges.
The handover formally took place at the close of the 69th Ordinary Session, with regional leaders reaffirming their collective commitment to peace, democracy, economic growth and regional integration across West Africa before departing Sierra Leone.
