Mali’s interim president and chairman of the AES, Assimi Goïta, recently disclosed that the use of biometric passports for mobility inside the AES region is set to begin on January 29, 2025.
This plan was first introduced in September 2024, following the AES’s push to dissociate itself from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), its former West African bloc.
Then, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger touted plans to roll out new biometric passports as part of their exit from ECOWAS.
As intended, expired passports are still valid until their expiration date.
Also, the people of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso will be able to trade them in for new documents that will read “AES” rather than “ECOWAS.”
The purpose of the biometric passport is to simplify travel for residents of its states and standardize travel documentation throughout the AES region.
The three Sahelian nations under junta rule announced in tandem in January 2024 that they intended to leave the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Since then, every regional and global attempt to keep them in the union has failed, and the bloc.
Although the three countries’ economies account for around 8% of the bloc’s GDP, ECOWAS has voiced concerns that their exit might undermine the freedom of movement and the shared market for the 400 million people who live in the 49-year-old bloc.
ECOWAS at the time the AES bloc was forming noted that the signing of the AES confederation pact would lead to West Africa’s fragmentation and increased instability.
Following a military coup that overthrew their previous democratic government, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali are presently governed by a military administration.
