Sahel’s Junta-Run Countries Band Together
Nosmot Gbadamosi, Foreign Policy, 5/12/2023
Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s foreign ministers on Friday recommended that the countries form a confederation following a two-day meeting in Mali’s capital, Bamako. The meeting aimed to flesh out the details of the new Alliance of Sahel States, created in September, which commits each country to come to the others’ aid in defense against external aggression.
Many of the meeting’s recommendations on military and economic integration appeared similar to the concept undergirding the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the now 11-member regional body from which the junta-led countries, alongside Guinea, were ousted following repeated coups d’états since 2020.
The countries’ finance ministers are considering ways to create an investment bank and economic stabilization fund as well as a monetary union. Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said their recommendations would be submitted to each head of state.
Security experts believe these recent moves are nothing more than political grandstanding to legitimize junta rule in the face of punitive sanctions imposed by ECOWAS.
Nate Allen, an associate professor at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies told the Associated Press that the partnership was in reality “‘an effort to entrench and legitimize (their) military governments’ more than to tackle the violent extremism which they have limited capacity to fight.”
As Folahanmi Aina wrote in Foreign Policy, the alliance fails to tackle the root causes of violent extremism in the region, which include socioeconomic grievances, human rights violations, and climate change. Instead it “is a convenient arrangement adopted by the putschists to mask their fear of uncertainty in a climate of heightened tension with France.”
Niger—which experienced a decline in violence prior to the coup—has focused its efforts on revoking deals with European governments. Niger’s junta on Monday scrapped two military agreements with the European Union as junta leader Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani instead discussed military cooperation with a Russian delegation led by Russia’s Deputy Minister of Defense Yunus-Bek Yevkurov in the Nigerien capital, Niamey. (The Russian delegation also traveled to Bamako.)
Niger’s foreign affairs ministry said the government had decided to withdraw from the EU Military Partnership Mission in Niger, launched in February, and the EU Civilian Capacity-Building Mission, set up in 2012.
A controversial pact aimed at stopping migration to Europe signed under pressure from the European Union in 2015 was also revoked last week by the junta. Ousted Nigerien President Mohammed Bazoum was crucial to the law’s implementation, but many locals despised the deal, which they viewed as benefiting others. In a survey by the Centre for Africa-Europe Relations, 65 percent of respondents believed that the Agadez community, a major Nigerien migration hub benefited from the migration industry—earning an income selling food and transportation to migrants travelling to Europe, including security officials who accept bribes in one of the world’s poorest economies. Less than half (44 percent) said the same about international development programs offered by the EU as part of a deal to stop migrants.
Violence has surged in all three countries since the military takeovers, spreading to coastal neighbors Ghana, Togo, and Benin. During the 18 months since the first coup in Burkina Faso, in January 2022, the number of people killed by militant Islamist groups soared 165 percent. After Afghanistan, Burkina Faso now accounts for more terrorism deaths annually than anywhere else in the world. The number of deaths in Mali increased by more than 50 percent from 2021 to 2022.
An armed group killed 40 civilians last week in Burkina Faso’s northern town of Djibo following an attack on a military base. At least 70 people, mostly children and the elderly, were killed last month in an attack on the northern village of Zaongo.
Burkina Faso’s junta announced in April a “general mobilization” decree to recapture the half of the country’s territory lost to various Islamist groups. The decree empowers the government to conscript men and women to fight and “restrain certain civil liberties.” Details of age limits for those to be conscripted were not released.
Human Rights Watch warned earlier this month that the legislation is also being used to punish dissent, targeting journalists, activists, and political opposition figures “who have openly criticized the junta.”
On Nov. 6 and 7, two journalists critical of the government were conscripted to join the Burkinabe army and fight against jihadists. “Conscripting journalists, including one aged 64, who have never undergone any military training is an appalling way to silence them,” Reporters Without Borders wrote in a statement.
On Friday, another Burkinabe journalist, Daouda Diallo, a 2022 recipient of the Martin Ennals Award for human rights work, was abducted by four or more unidentified men in Burkina Faso’s capital of Ouagadougou after visiting the passport office to renew his documents.
Amnesty International said Diallo’s abduction was “presumably [for him] to be forcibly conscripted” after he was notified in writing last month along with other journalists and activists by Burkina Faso’s security forces.
Meanwhile, as Islamist militant groups grow in strength, Burkina Faso and Niger said over the weekend that they planned to quit the Group of Five (G-5) Sahel alliance set up by France and the European Union.
Chad and Mauritania are the only remaining members of the alliance. Mali left the force last year.
Ultimately, by pooling their resources together, coup countries in the Sahel are finding ways to hold out against ostracization and hold onto power, despite their countries’ deteriorating security.