Niamey, the capital of Niger, is preparing to host the first summit of the Heads of State of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), created in September 2023. Colonel Assimi Goïta of Mali and Captain Ibrahim Traoré of Burkina Faso will be received by their Nigerien counterpart, General Abdouramane Tiani. A meeting just before the summit of the West African regional organization, ECOWAS, scheduled for the following day in Abuja and from which they slammed the door at the beginning of 2024.
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In Niamey, the watchword has been passed. For this first summit of theAlliance of Sahel States announced as a ” historic event “People were asked to go out” massively to warmly welcome revolutionary leaders working for the security and development of the region ” Niamey intends to mark the occasion and give impetus to this young organization whose respective leaders came to power between 2020 and 2023 through coups d’état.
This will be the first meeting of its kind between the three heads of state, although several bilateral meetings have already taken place. All have since turned their backs on France, the former colonizer, and on ECOWAS which they accuse of being subservient to Paris and of not supporting them enough in their battles against the jihadists.
Despite this distancing, several heads of state in the region continue to call for dialogue between the two blocs. This is particularly the case of Bassirou Diomaye Faye of Senegal who, barely installed in power in Dakar, had considered a reconciliation between ECOWAS and the AES possible.
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