Junta-run Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have finalized plans to form a confederation, dubbed the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
The foreign ministers of the three countries met in Niger’s capital, Niamey, to agree on a text establishing the AES. This new alliance is seen as a significant development in the region, as the three countries seek to strengthen their ties and cooperate more closely on issues such as security and economic development.
The move is also seen as a snub to France, the former colonial power in the region, as the three countries seek to assert their independence and sovereignty.
The Sahel region has been subject to deadly jihadist violence for years, which they accused France of not being able to curb. The three countries announced in late January that they were quitting the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which they said was under French influence, to create their own regional grouping.
The foreign ministers of the three countries, Niger’s Bakary Yaou Sangare, Mali’s Abdoulaye Diop, and Burkina Faso’s Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore, met on Friday to finalize the text establishing the AES.
The text will be adopted by the heads of state of the three countries at a summit, although the date has not been specified. “We can consider very clearly, today, that the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) has been born,” Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said after the meeting.
