Africa: G5 Sahel becomes an empty shell after the creation of the AES. What future for this moribund coalition?
Due to the lack of tangible results, the G5 Sahel has seen the majority of its members withdraw. After Mali in May 2022, Niger and Burkina Faso announced their withdrawal from the organization in December 2023.
These three countries were the very reason for the establishment of this organization in 2014, aiming to address terrorism and provide development prospects to this economically challenged region.
Having not found satisfaction, or at least a hint of a solution to the security crisis plaguing their states for over a decade, as well as economic challenges, Mali, followed recently by Niger and Burkina Faso, have left the G5 Sahel. The organization is now reduced to two members, Chad and Mauritania.
This was a choice made « in full sovereignty » by these three countries, who specified in their decision that they were withdrawing « from all bodies and organs of the G5 Sahel, including the Joint Force ».
While in Mali, regional cooperation is criticized for being « instrumentalized » by the « outside », the transitional governments of Burkina Faso and Niger accuse the coalition of « serving foreign interests at the expense of those of the Sahel peoples », stating that they will no longer accept « the diktat of any power in the name of a perverted and infantilizing partnership that denies the right to sovereignty of our peoples and our states ».
In Nouakchott, since last December, the physical existence of the G5 Sahel now only encompasses a four-story building housing the organization’s headquarters.
However, having failed to achieve its objectives, the organization is devoid of its essence with the departure of the three countries currently led by military powers, who have created a new bloc, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
Its objective is to close ranks for mutual defense, coordinate actions for an effective fight against terrorism, and uphold the sovereignty of their states. Only optimists still believe in a diplomatic miracle to revive the alliance of the region’s states. But everything suggests this is a utopian dream.
Having chosen not to endure any unjust and illegitimate sanctions from any organization influenced by Western policies, nor be led by the nose, the three countries are divorcing from all organizations that, like a millstone around their neck, hinder the flourishing of their peoples and their vision of total independence and economic development.
As evidence, the three countries of the AES have recently announced their withdrawal from ECOWAS to give themselves an opportunity to build endogenous development based on their resources and capacities.
It is up to the citizens of the Alliance to embrace the vision of their leaders and work to establish genuine solidarity among the peoples of the Sahel, in order to defend their interests and accelerate the process of liberation and development. This is to thwart all the bad predictions made by detractors of the AES and their leaders.
