Senegal leader's brother resigns over oil firm allegations

Dakar (AFP) - The brother of Senegal's president resigned Friday as a director of an oil firm with significant operations in the west African country following corruption allegations by opposition groups.

Aliou Sall, younger brother of President Macky Sall, is accused of helping commodities firm Timis Corporation unfairly secure favourable conditions for the company while he was on its board.

The opposition has also questioned the involvement of a presidential family member in a firm that jointly controls offshore oil and gas deposits alongside the Senegalese government.

Sall, who is also the mayor of a Dakar suburb, confirmed to AFP by telephone Friday he would "no longer be in charge of the group's activities in Senegal".

Writing on his Facebook page, Sall hit out at a "campaign of demonisation" and said he was only resigning to put "the president of the republic at ease".

He said he would retain a role within Timis Corporation which is owned by Romanian-Australian tycoon Frank Timis, and said he would be involved in "the development of future projects in Africa".

Sall and Timis lodged a legal complaint on Monday against 11 individuals, including former prime minister Abdoul Mbaye and several journalists, accusing them of "defamation and spreading false news" over the affair.

Timis sold a chunk of its interests in oil and gas exploration off Senegal to Texas-based Kosmos Energy in 2014, but retains a 30 percent stake in the project.

Opposition groups have planned a rally for Friday calling for greater transparency over oil and gas contracts signed between foreign firms and the Senegalese government in recent years.

The government has just announced the creation of a new body of ministers and industry figures to scrutinise regulations on oil and gas to "reinforce the package of measures on transparency within the natural resources sector".