Ministers from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have met in the Burkinabe capital on Thursday to discuss fashioning a confederation.
A confederation is a type of government made up of a league of independent nations or states. Each state is independent and has its own authority and autonomy, but they come together for some sort of shared government.
The three military juntas formed a defence and economic pact, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), in September.
Burkina’s Defence Minister General Kassoum Coulibaly said the talks in Ouagadougou were an opportunity to pursue the implementation of “instruments, mechanisms and procedures” and the “legal architecture for the confederation”.
The processes will “allow our alliance and the confederation to function efficiently and to the great joy” of the three countries’ populations, his Niger counterpart General Salifou Modi said.
Foreign ministers of the three countries backed the creation of a confederation as part of a long-term goal of uniting the West African neighbours within a federation, at a meeting in December in the Malian capital Bamako.
Leader of the Niger’s military Junta General Abdourahamane Tiani noted on Sunday that the creation of a common currency with Burkina and Mali could be a “way out” of “colonisation”.
The latest meeting came weeks after Burkina, Mali and Niger announced their pulling out from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
The three were founding members of the regional bloc in 1975 but had been suspended following military coups that overthrew elected civilian governments.
The three countries have faced ongoing jihadist violence and have experienced military coups since 2020.
Their new military leaders have also accused former colonial power France of instrumentalising ECOWAS.
They have pushed out French ambassadors and forces while turning politically and militarily towards Moscow.
The ECOWAS “withdrawal provides us with an opportunity to achieve real fraternity… without any outside interference or manipulation,” explained Mali’s Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga.
Coulibaly said that ECOWAS “has turned away from its main objective of serving the people”.
“Our decision to withdraw is irreversible,” he said.
