Senegal’s Prime Minister, Ousmane Sonko, in a detailed speech on Friday, touched a range of national issues, including the euro-backed CFA franc, oil and gas transactions, and LGBTQ rights.

Firebrand Sonko, who came to prominence in March after his hand-picked presidential candidate, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, won a resounding victory also stressed the potential of closing French military posts in the West African nation.

“More than 60 years after our independence … we must question the reasons why the French army for example still benefits from several military bases in our country and the impact of this presence on our national sovereignty and our strategic autonomy,” Sonko said at a joint conference with the French left-wing politician Jean-Luc Melenchon in the capital Dakar.

“I reiterate here the desire of Senegal to have its own control, which is incompatible with the lasting presence of foreign military bases in Senegal … Many countries have promised defence agreements, but this does not justify the fact that a third of the Dakar region is now occupied by foreign garrisons.”

After driving out French forces, neighbours Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger looked to Russia for assistance in quelling Islamist insurgencies on their own. A commercial is presently playing on the video player. With a mouse or keyboard, you can skip the advertisement in five seconds.

They have also established their alliance with Sahel states and distanced themselves from the West African group ECOWAS, which denounced their coups. However, Sonko spoke kindly to them on Thursday.

“We will not let go of our brothers in the Sahel and we will do everything necessary to strengthen the ties,” he said.

Additionally, he stated that in order to enhance export competitiveness and to absorb shocks, Senegal, which shares the euro-linked CFA franc currency with seven other nations, would prefer a flexible currency pegged to at least two currencies.

Faye had originally promised to do away with the CFA franc during the election campaign, but he later changed his mind. Renegotiation of oil and gas contracts in Senegal, where production is scheduled to start this year, was one of Sonko’s repeated promises.

In addition, he urged Western nations to approach social issues like gender equality and LGBTQ rights with “restraint, respect, reciprocity, and tolerance.” He claimed that although homosexuality had always existed in Senegal, it had always been “managed” by the nation under its sociocultural circumstances and that this would continue.

“Senegal and many other African countries cannot accept any truth in legalising this phenomenon.”

In a landmark decision utilizing Europe’s universal jurisdiction, a Swiss court on Wednesday found a former Gambian government minister guilty of crimes against humanity committed under former dictator Yahya Jammeh. It sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

Ousman Sonko was convicted guilty of multiple counts of deliberate killing, torture, and false detention by the Federal Criminal Court. The former interior minister of the Gambia, Sonko, was cleared of any charges of sexual assault in 2016.

“The trial chamber found Ousman Sonko guilty of multiple counts of intentional homicide, multiple counts of torture and multiple counts of deprivation of liberty, each as a crime against humanity,” the court said in a statement.

“The trial chamber concludes that Ousman Sonko committed these crimes…. as part of a systematic attack against the civilian population.”

Using universal jurisdiction, which enables the prosecution of the most serious crimes anywhere, Sonko is the highest-ranking official to ever be tried by a European nation. The campaign organization TRIAL International, located in Geneva, backed the plaintiffs when they launched the initial complaint against Sonko.

While criticizing his seven-year pre-trial imprisonment, which he claimed included some time in solitary confinement, Sonko refuted the allegations and charged the plaintiffs with lying.

Jammeh and Sonko had a falling out during the last few months of the dictator’s 22-year totalitarian reign, which came to an end in January 2017 when the leader was forced to leave to exile in Equatorial Guinea following an electoral setback.  Sonko was detained in Switzerland in the same month he applied for asylum.

Using universal jurisdiction, which enables the prosecution of the most serious crimes anywhere, Sonko is the highest-ranking official to ever be tried by a European nation.

The campaign organization TRIAL International, located in Geneva, backed the plaintiffs when they launched the initial complaint against Sonko.

While criticizing his seven-year pre-trial imprisonment, which he claimed included some time in solitary confinement, Sonko refuted the allegations and charged the plaintiffs with lying.

Jammeh and Sonko had a falling out during the last few months of the dictator’s 22-year totalitarian reign, which came to an end in January 2017 when the leader was forced to leave to exile in Equatorial Guinea following an electoral setback.

Sonko was detained in Switzerland in the same month he applied for asylum. Meanwhile, the public prosecutor in Switzerland had requested the maximum sentence of life in jail.

“The conviction of Ousman Sonko, one of the pillars of Yahya Jammeh’s brutal regime, is a major step on the long road to justice for Jammeh’s victims,” Reed Brody, a war crimes prosecutor attending the trial, told Reuters.

“The long arm of the law is catching up with Yahya Jammeh’s accomplices all around the world, and hopefully will soon catch up with Jammeh himself,” he said.

The Bellinzona court heard details of crimes allegedly committed between 2000 and 2016 by Sonko or under his supervision between January and March. This is Switzerland’s second-ever civilian prosecution for crimes against humanity.