Burkina Faso, Mali Agree to Deepen Federation Project Reflections: Burkinabe Foreign Ministry

Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea have all been suspended from ECOWAS and the African Union (AU) after military coups over the past few years. Despite the imposed sanctions, the nations stated they would make joint efforts to achieve reinstatement.

Ouagadougou and Bamako have come to an agreement to broaden discussions on forming a federation, explained Karamoko Jean Marie Traore, Burkinabe minister delegate to the foreign minister.

During Malian Prime Minister Choguel Maiga's February 25-26 visit to Burkina Faso, which was designed to enhance the bilateral relationship, the countries signed several agreements on security and humanitarian cooperation and called on West African countries to unite in counter-terrorism efforts.

The outcome of the talks was announced at the end of the Malian PM's visit by Jean Marie Traore, who highlighted the common security threats.

"The two parties raised the necessity to combine their efforts with other countries of the sub-region [West Africa] to fight this bane [terrorism] and urged for joint action at the regional level to eradicate it," he said.

The countries also expressed their disappointment with the Economic Community of West African States' (ECOWAS) decision to maintain and toughen sanctions against Burkina Faso, Mali, and Guinea, including the suspension from the organization, which followed a row of military coups in the West African countries over the past few years.

Earlier in February, during his trip to Bamako, Burkina Faso's PM Apollinaire Kyelem de Tambela said the country was seeking to form a federation with Mali in order to combine their efforts to settle common problems.

"The two parties," Jean Marie Traore continued, "have agreed to deepen the reflections on the federation project."

De Tambela believes that the two West African nations together could form a "flexible federation that would be mutually reinforcing and respect the aspirations of both sides," said his office.

"Mali is a major producer of cotton, cattle and gold. Burkina Faso also produces cotton, cattle and gold," she stated, as quoted by his office, adding: "So long as we each take separate paths, we don't have much clout. But if you put Mali's and Burkina Faso's production of cotton, gold and cattle together, it becomes a powerhouse."

The Burkinabe PM recalled a failed attempt to create a federation between Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Benin in 1960.

"Our forebears," he said, "tried to create a grouping, like the Mali Federation, which sadly did not last."

Following his words, Choguel Maiga, during a joint dinner on January 31, said the countries share "the same goals" and history.

May 2021 marked a coup in Mali when the Malian Armed Forces headed by then Vice President Assimi Goita removed the temporary administration, saying it had violated transition rules. The elections in the country were set by the military authorities for 2022, but were postponed due to security issues. Elections are expected to be held in 2024.

Guinea saw public disorder in September 2021, which came after widespread disappointment with then-President Alpha Conde. The Guinean Army led by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya came to power through a coup the same month. The country is expected to have democratic elections and return to constitutional order in 2025.

In September 2022, Burkina Faso also experienced a coup in which Captain Ibrahim Traore assumed the president's position in October and promised to hold democratic elections in July 2024.

All three coups brought the country's suspension from the AU and ECOWAS.

This month, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, hosted the 36th session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union, and, despite being suspended, delegations of the three West African countries arrived in the host city to seek reinstatement in the continental body. As part of their trip, they met with newly elected AU President Azali Assoumani and the foreign ministers of several member countries.

Beforehand, foreign ministers of Mali, Abdoulaye Diop, Guinea, Morissanda Kouyate, and Burkina Faso, Olivia Rouamba, held a meeting in the Burkinabe capital, Ouagadougou, on February 9 and made a joint statement condemning "the mechanically imposed sanctions." They also noted that the regional blocs "do not take into account the deep and complex causes of political changes" in their countries.

In 2011, the West African nations saw the beginning of a radical Islamist insurgency in the Sahel region, and have since been in deep security crisis, suffering from atrocities committed by the terrorists.

According to the ministers' statement, it is the growing insecurity in the region which forced Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea "to combine their efforts and those of the countries of the sub-region and the region to deal with this scourge."

Amid the deteriorating security situation in the Sahel region, France launched the so-called Operation Barkhane in 2014 under the pretext of fighting terrorism. In line with the operation, France maintained its military presence in its former colonies Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, and Niger. Despite the fact that French President Emmanuel Macron declared the end of the operation in November last year, French troops are still active in some parts of the region.

Since the beginning of the operation, France has repeatedly been accused of failing to implement what it initially was supposed to do.

Mali and Burkina Faso - with their new military governments - achieved the withdrawal of the French forces from their territories, terminating the agreements which envisaged the former metropole's military presence.

In February last year, the current foreign minister of Mali, Choguel Kokalla Maiga described the French military presence in the country as an intervention "that turned into a de-facto partition of Mali, which contributed to the sanctuarisation of our [Malian] territories for the terrorists who had time to take refuge and reorganise themselves in order to come back in force."