The military leaders of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger hailed the recently signed treaty as a step “towards greater integration” between the three countries, in the latest demonstration of their distancing from traditional regional and Western allies.
During a summit in the Nigerian capital, Niamey, on Saturday, the three leaders signed a confederation treaty that aims to strengthen a mutual defense pact announced last year, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
The signing capped the first joint summit of the leaders – General Abdourahmane Tchiani of Niger, Captain Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso and Colonel Assimi Goita of Mali – since they came to power through successive coups in neighboring West African nations.
It also came just months after the three countries withdrew from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional bloc in January.
Speaking at Saturday’s summit, Tchiani called the 50-year-old ECOWAS “a threat to our states”.
The West African economic bloc suspended the three countries after their respective military takeovers, which took place in July 2023 in Niger, September 2022 in Burkina Faso and August 2021 in Mali.
ECOWAS also imposed sanctions on Niger and Mali, but the bloc’s leaders remain hopeful for the trio’s eventual return.
“We are going to create an AES of the people, instead of an ECOWAS whose directives and instructions are dictated to it by powers that are foreign to Africa”, said Tchiani.
Burkina Faso’s Traore also accused foreign powers of trying to exploit the countries. The three nations have regularly accused former colonial ruler France of meddling in ECOWAS.
“Westerners consider that we belong to them and that our wealth also belongs to them. They think they are the ones who should continue to tell us what is good for our states,” he said.
“This era is gone forever. Our resources will remain for us and our population.”
For his part, Mali’s Goita said the strengthened relationship means that an “attack on one of us will be an attack on all the other members.”
Change of influence
Reporting from Abuja on Saturday, Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris noted that the three military leaders met just one day before the scheduled ECOWAS meeting in Nigeria’s capital.
Efforts to mediate countries’ return to the bloc were expected to be discussed, Idris said.
“Many people believe that the meeting in Niger was to counter whatever is coming. [from] ECOWAS and also to outline its position: That they do not return to the Economic Community of West African States”, he explained.
Idris added that Senegal’s newly elected president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, recently visited the three countries on an informal basis in an effort to restore ties.
“However, it is unclear whether or not he got a positive response,” he said.
Adama Gaye, political commentator and former communications director at ECOWAS, said the creation of the three-member Alliance of Sahel States “weakened” the economic bloc.
Still, Gaye told Al Jazeera that “despite its real name recognition, ECOWAS has not performed well when it comes to achieving regional integration, promoting intra-African trade in West Africa and also ensuring security” in region.
“So this justifies the feeling of many in West Africa – [the] ordinary citizens and even intellectuals – [who are] ask questions about ECOWAS’ position, whether it should be reviewed, reinvented,” he said, urging the bloc to engage in diplomacy to try to bridge the divide.
Violence and instability
The Niamey summit also came a day before the United States completed its withdrawal from a key base in Niger, underscoring how new military leaders have redesigned the security relationships that have defined the region in recent years.
Armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) disputed control of territory in the three countries, triggering waves of violence and raising concern in Western capitals.
But after recent coups d’état, countries’ ties with Western governments have frayed.
French troops completed their withdrawal from Mali in 2022 and left Niger and Burkina Faso last year.
Meanwhile, U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Kenneth Ekman said earlier this week that about 1,000 military personnel would complete their withdrawal from Niger Air Base 101 by Sunday.
The US is also in the process of abandoning a separate $100 million drone base near Agadez in central Niger, which authorities have described as essential for gathering intelligence on armed groups in the region.
While expelling former Western allies, military leaders in Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali have increasingly sought to establish economic and security ties with Russia.
However, it is still unclear whether the new approach has helped contain the violence plaguing the countries, where around 72 million people live.
In 2023, Burkina Faso saw a massive escalation in violence, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) tracker.
In Niger, slight gains against armed groups largely diminished after the coup, according to ACLED.
Meanwhile, an offensive by Malian forces and Wagner mercenaries saw “elements” of the Russian government-linked group “involved in the indiscriminate killing of hundreds of civilians, the destruction of infrastructure and the looting of property, as well as triggering displacements in large scale”. ACLED said.
Around three million people have been displaced by fighting across countries.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
