A report by Reuters revealed that the first summit of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) which took place on Saturday saw the signing of a confederation treaty between Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali.
According to General Abdourahamane Tiani, the leader of Niger, the AES summit was in his words “the culmination of our determined common will to reclaim our national sovereignty.”
“Our peoples have irrevocably turned their backs on ECOWAS,” Tiani said in a speech. “It is up to us today to make the AES Confederation an alternative to any artificial regional group by building … a community free from the control of foreign powers,” the president added.
The treaty’s signing comes a day before ECOWAS’s meeting, which had been held to persuade the three junta states to reconsider leaving ECOWAS.
Following the signing of the treaty, ECOWAS revealed that West Africa faces disintegration and more instability with the signing of the confederation treaty, as seen in another report by Reuters.
Omar Touray, head of the ECOWAS commission, explained that some of the primary benefits of the almost 50-year-old bloc were freedom of movement and a 400 million-person common market. Still, both would be jeopardized if the three nations quit.
The commission president also said that funding for economic projects in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger valued at over $500 million could also be halted or canceled.
Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali currently run a military regime, after ousting their former democratic government in a military coup. All three states have been asked to revert to democratic rule in the Economic Community of West African States, their original regional block.
As a result, the three countries decided to exit the bloc to establish the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a regional bloc exclusive to them.
