Senegal has decided to enforce a strict principle of reciprocity with France by freezing their extradition treaty, the Minister of Justice announced on Thursday before the National Assembly during the review of her department’s 2026 budget, set at 81.01 billion CFA francs.
According to her, this measure will remain in force as long as Paris does not act on the extradition requests for two Senegalese nationals sought by the judiciary.
“We have provided all necessary justifications and we maintain our requests. As long as they are not fulfilled, we will suspend all extraditions to France,” the Minister of Justice stated, emphasizing that “reciprocity will be applied” in response to the blockage observed on the French side.
Among the two Senegalese individuals being sought is the journalist and CEO of the Groupe Avenir Communication, Madiambal Diagne.
In her address to the assembly, the minister indicated that Dakar has not received a response on these cases, while France continues to submit extradition requests to the Senegalese judiciary, often concerning French citizens or dual nationals.
The minister recalled that, out of the approximately twenty requests transmitted by Paris in 2024 and 2025, Senegal granted three and rejected four. “Due to the blockage of our two requests, we have not acted on ten other requests from France,” she specified.
Twelve French cases are now affected by the suspension decided by Dakar. Individuals subject to French warrants will continue to be arrested if necessary, but “we will not extradite them,” the Minister of Justice finally assured, responding to questions from members of parliament.