Burkina Faso, Mali And Niger To Form Confederation
The foreign ministers of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have proposed creating a confederation as a step towards forming a federation of the three West African countries, according to a joint statement issued on Friday.
The statement came after a two-day meeting in Bamako, the capital of Mali, where the ministers discussed the objectives and modalities of the Alliance of Sahel States, a pact established by the military regimes that rule the three countries.
The alliance, which was formed in July after Niger’s coup d’etat that toppled elected president Mohamed Bazoum, aims to foster closer economic and security cooperation among the members, as well as to resist international pressure for a swift return to civilian rule.
The ministers said that they were “guided by the ambition to ultimately achieve a federation uniting Burkina, Mali and Niger” and that they “recommend the creation of a confederation to the heads of state of the Alliance of Sahel States”.
They added that the confederation would offer “great potential for peace, stability, diplomatic strength and economic development” and that it would be based on the principles of “diplomacy, defence and development” to consolidate political and economic integration.
The ministers also said that they would submit their conclusions to their heads of state, who are expected to meet in Bamako soon to endorse the proposal.
The proposal of a confederation comes amid a worsening security situation in the Sahel region, where jihadist groups have been waging a violent insurgency for years, killing thousands of people and displacing millions more.
The three countries are also among the poorest in the world, facing multiple challenges such as poverty, corruption, climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic.
The ministers said that they would work together to address these challenges and to create a stabilisation fund, an investment bank and a committee that would study an economic and monetary union.
They also expressed their solidarity with each other and their readiness to provide mutual assistance in case of any threat to their sovereignty or territorial integrity.
