Junta-run Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali have concluded plans to form a confederation after turning severing ties with former colonial ruler France to seek closer ties with Russia.
Their foreign ministers met recently in Niamey, Niger’s capital, to agree on a text establishing the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
As he read the final statement, Niger Foreign Minister Bakary Yaou Sangare said: “The objective was to finalise the draft text relating to the institutionalisation and operationalisation of the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).”
He stated that the text would be adopted by the Heads of State of the three countries at a summit, without revealing the date.
After meeting General Abdourahamane Tiani, the head of Nigerien military regime, Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said: “We can consider very clearly, today, that the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) has been born.”
The third foreign minister present at the meeting was Burkina Faso’s Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore.
The Sahel area has been subject to fatal jihadist violence for years, which they accused France of not being able to tackle.
The three countries disclosed in late January that they were quitting The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to establish their own regional grouping.
