Authorities in Senegal have issued an international arrest warrant for a journalist who disobeyed orders not to leave the country, the country’s interior ministry said late Friday.

Madiambal Diagne, editor of Le Quotidien and head of the media group Avenir Communication, is a journalist known for criticising the government.

This week, he received a summons as part of an investigation into alleged suspicious financial transactions.

Diagne’s name was listed in a government financial intelligence report, but he subsequently left Senegal for France, leaving investigators in the lurch.

“Madiambal Diagne, despite being subject to a search and arrest warrant and a travel ban, was able to leave the country under circumstances that have not yet been clarified,” the interior ministry stated.

The journalist’s exit has provoked a flurry of speculation across the country about how he managed it.

Posting on X on Friday, Diagne said he was currently in France despite orders to stay in Senegal.

“I left Senegal the same evening after the police opposed my departure for France. I wanted to take some time to prepare my defence. I will return in a few days to face my responsibilities,” he said.

The interior ministry statement said the investigating judges on the case had issued the international arrest warrant for the “fugitive”.

It added that the chiefs of the investigative unit and of the police bureau at Dakar airport had been suspended.

Diagne acknowledged the warrant in a separate X post on Saturday, adding that

“I myself announced my presence in France and my upcoming return to Senegal”.

“Before the execution of such a warrant, I will present myself to the justice of my country,” he said.

AFP