Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Alliance of Sahel States | Photo credit: X@BakaryYaou
Junta-led Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have finalized plans to form a confederation after turning their backs on former colonial ruler France to seek closer ties with Russia.
Their foreign ministers met on Friday in Niger’s capital Niamey to agree on a text establishing the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
“The aim was to finalize the draft text regarding the institutionalization and operationalization of the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES),” Nigerien Foreign Minister Bakary Yaou Sangare said as he read the final statement late on Friday.
He said the text would be adopted by the heads of state of the three countries at a summit, without specifying the date.
“Today we can clearly state that the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) is born,” Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said after a meeting with General Abdourahamane Tiani, the head of the Nigerien military regime.
The third Foreign Minister at the meeting was Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore from Burkina Faso.
The Sahel region has been the victim of deadly jihadist violence for years, which they accused France of failing to curb.
The three countries said in late January they would leave the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which they said was under French influence, to create their own regional grouping.
