Sahel: Towards a common biometric identity card for AES countries
Bamako, July 17, 2025 – Following the launch of a common biometric passport, the three member states of the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) — Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger — are preparing to take another major step in their integration process: the introduction of a common biometric identity card.
The announcement was made on Wednesday by Mali’s Minister of Security and Civil Protection, Daoud Aly Mohammedine, following a cabinet meeting. The Malian government has adopted a draft decree establishing and regulating this new identity card, which will be standardized across the confederation.
“In order to ensure the free movement of people within the Sahel’s security context, the Heads of State of the Confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States have decided to harmonize the technical specifications of travel and identity documents”, the minister stated in an official communiqué.
This decision follows the technical validation of the project on November 22, 2024, in Bamako by the security ministers of the three countries. It was formalized by the President of the Confederation, General Assimi Goïta, on April 18, 2025.
Named the “AES Biometric Identity Card”, this new document will complement the “AES e-passport” already in circulation. The goal is to ease intra-confederal mobility while strengthening citizen security within a region marked by instability and terrorist threats.
This initiative is part of a broader political, economic, and military rapprochement between the three Sahelian states, all governed by military juntas that came to power through coups: Mali in 2020, Burkina Faso in 2022, and Niger in 2023.
Since their official withdrawal from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on January 29, 2025, the AES countries have launched numerous integration projects. In addition to harmonized identity documents, they have introduced:
- A joint military force of 5,000 troops to combat terrorism,
- The Confederal Bank for Investment and Development (BCID AES),
- And alternative strategic partnerships, notably with Russia.
Through these efforts, AES leaders aim to build an autonomous confederation that is both secure and economically integrated — one that breaks definitively with traditional regional structures seen as ineffective or hostile.
