The Social Democratic Party of Senegal (SDS) and its Secretary General, Dr. Mamadou Lamine Manga, in a press conference, called on the government to listen and be flexible, and to guarantee the individual and collective freedoms of citizens.

The Social Democrats, however, congratulated the government for supporting rice farmers in the river valley, which enabled the harvest of 420,000 tonnes of rice this year.

However, for Dr. Manga, efforts still need to be made. ʺWe still find that this is very insufficient compared to the country's rice-growing potential. Senegal has 89,000 hectares of rice fields, including 60,000 hectares in Casamance and 6,000 hectares in the Saloum Delta, and rice is an essential cereal for the nutrition of Senegalese households. Rice imports reached 346 billion CFA francs in 2022. This value fell substantially in 2023, before increasing again in 2024. This shows that there is still no real rice policy, while in the south of the country, we have several rice-growing civilizations,ʺ he said.

The SDS urges the authorities not to engage in promoting agribusiness, which risks transforming farmers into mere agricultural laborers. This promotion of agribusiness risks dealing a severe blow to family farming.

Furthermore, Dr. Mamadou Lamine Manga and his colleagues urge the government to strengthen the Senegalese Institute for Agricultural Research (ISRA) and to create faculties of development studies in universities, to better meet the country's development aspirations.

Another point of concern for the government: oil and gas concession contracts. The Social Democrats are asking the government to provide clarification on the progress of the renegotiation of oil and gas contracts.

Regarding the situation in the municipality of Ziguinchor, the social democrats believe that everything is going from bad to worse. Degraded roads, lack of public lighting, anarchic occupation of public spaces, unspeakable insalubrity, youth without alternatives, and a lack of transparency in the management of the town hall's finances are the points raised by Dr. Manga and his comrades. They remind President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, then a candidate for the supreme office, of his promise to make Ziguinchor "the second capital of the country."

"The municipality of Ziguinchor is a crossroads city, university, port, airport, with several services, markets, a river bank in addition to some rice-growing valleys, and also very accessible by ocean. This potential is untapped due to the incompetence of the current municipal team," according to Dr. Manga.

On the judicial front, the Social Democrats urge the government to avoid any form of politicization of the Ministries of the Interior and Justice. "These two departments are pillars of social justice and the rule of law," they believe.