The government of Senegal has banned ministers from embarking on nonessential foreign trips, citing the oil price surge occasioned by the ongoing Iran war.

At a rally in Mbour on Friday evening, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko warned of “extremely difficult” times ahead, disclosing that the government was implementing measures to cut expenditure.

“I have taken a number of drastic measures to restrict everything related to government spending, including the cancellation of all non-essential missions abroad.

“No minister in my government will leave the country unless it is for an ‌essential mission related to the work we are currently undertaking,” he said.

The minister said he had also suspended his trips to France, Spain, and Niger, as oil currently trades at about $115 per barrel, almost double the $62 per barrel in the country’s budget.

Mr Sonko, who admitted that things were hard following the surge in oil prices, said he wanted to give the youths he addressed at the rally a “sense of this world, which is a difficult world,” rather than “frighten” them. 

According to him, other measures to limit expenditure will be announced by the Senegalese mines minister in the coming days.

The West African country, like many others, relies on the importation of petroleum products. However, oil shipments have been disrupted by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow channel through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil and gas is shipped.