Burkina Faso’s Captain Ibrahim Traore (L) sit next to Niger’s General Abdourahamane Tiani (R) upon his arrival in Niamey on 5 July 2024. (AFP)
The Sahel Alliance of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger has effectively cut ties with ECOWAS.The three countries are at an advanced stage of talking about a confederation of their own.That is supposed to be a stepping stone towards full federation.
The Sahel’s three coup-led countries – Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso – are at an advanced stage of planning to form a confederation of their own rather than rejoining the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
The three share borders, a Francophone history, and indigenous and traditional cultures – and are all suspended from both the African Union and ECOWAS.
On Saturday, they held the first Sahel Alliance Summit where Mali was elected to lead the group in what is due to be an annual rotation.
Their “Alliance of Sahel States” is due to be “a sovereign space of security and prosperity”, according to the theme of the meeting in Niamey, Niger, at the same time as ECOWAS was meeting in Abuja, Nigeria.
The confederation is due to be a stepping stone towards a full federation, Mali’s military ruler Colonel Assimi Goita told the gathering.
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A confederation is usually established for specific purposes, such as defence or economic cooperation, while full sovereignty is retained.
In contrast, a federation typically erases national borders for citizens, and makes for a single international personality for the former nations involved, from the perspective of the rest of the world.
The three countries share a problem with violent extremism, which the likes of the United States, France and Germany have fought against by their side.
However, after the unconstitutional changes in governance, France, Germany and the US fell out of favour and were instructed to leave.
In their place, the three countries have all opted to work with Russian paramilitary outfits such as the Africa Corps, formerly Wagner Group.
Goita insisted that working together with Burkina Faso and Niger had seen “fear changing sides”, because “we regularly witness acts of surrender by terrorist elements which lay down their arms before our national armies”.
The coup leaders in September last year signed the Liptako-Gourma Charter to form an alliance which, along with another declaration in March this year, amounts to a mutual defence pact.
In their joint communique after the summit, the countries agreed that ECOWAS had “heavy responsibility” for what they said was the crumbling of relations between states in the region, and said they were permanently withdrawing from that body.
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Publish date : 2024-07-08 07:00:00
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