Two years ago, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger formed an anti-imperialist bloc in West Africa, establishing the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) on 16 September 2023. After removing their French-aligned neocolonial puppet governments, they have embarked on a monumental struggle to abolish their ties with imperialist France and exploitation at the hands of multinational mining companies. The AES is a threat of a good example in Africa; its achievements and charismatic figures, such as Burkina Faso’s President Ibrahim Traoré, resonate with the young people of Africa, encouraging them to break neocolonial arrangements. CASSIUS J KALANY puts the AES in historical context.
A history of resistance
Costly defeats in Vietnam in 1954 and in Algeria in 1962 made France fear total loss of control over its West African colonies, which began to have promising independence movements. In 1960, Modiba Keita, Mali’s former pan-Africanist and socialist indepen-dence leader, unified Mali and Senegal with the Mali Federation and later the Ghana-Guinea-Mali Union of African States. Mali was industrialised through dozens of state-owned enterprises and had its own national currency. In response, France enforced devastating trade restrictions and politically isolated the nation. The resulting economic crisis in 1968 made the conditions ripe for a French-backed military coup that would imprison Keita until he died in May 1977.
In Niger, Djibo Bakary founded the Sawaba party in 1954, a popular socialist and anti-imperialist movement that rejected joining France’s then Franco-African Community. Death squads were deployed in Niger by France, under President Charles de Gaulle, forcing the Sawaba movement underground and forcing the Nigerien government into accepting neocolonial arrangements and delaying independence.
In Burkina Faso, national hero and former socialist leader Thomas Sankara took power in 1983 and drove forward radical reforms, championing self-reliance, national sovereignty and rejecting Western aid. Literacy rose from 13% to 73%, 2.5 million children were vaccinated against common diseases, and women were appointed to government positions, gaining significant rights. Feudal landlords were expropriated, and industrialisation took place without foreign aid. On 15 October 1987 Sankara was assassinated in a coup d’état organised by his former colleague Blaise Compaoré, again backed by France.
Neocolonial control
These three countries were forced to pay enormous reparations under the yoke of French neocolonialism, and the CFA franc currency was forced on all of France’s former West African colonies. It enforces a fixed rate of exchange with the euro, a French guarantee of the unlimited convert-ibility of CFA francs into euros and centralisation of foreign exchange reserves, forcing Africa’s central banks to deposit 50% of their foreign exchange reserves in a special French Treasury ‘operating account’. It empowers France with voting and veto power in Africa’s central banks. This helped usher in a wave of International Monetary Fund and World Bank Structural Adjustment Programmes across West Africa in the 1980s and 1990s, where austerity measures, public sector cuts, and trade liberalisation were imposed. These changes reinforced neocolonial control through debt, privatisation, and externally managed state restructuring.
In 2011, NATO’s imperialist intervention, supported by France, destroyed Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya, one of the most developed and stable countries in Africa. Islamic fundamentalist and separatist groups quickly gained easy access to Libya’s armoury, and weapons flooded the Sahel. France launched multiple disastrous ‘anti-jihadist’ operations to protect its assets in the region, backed by the US, EU and Britain, which further destabilised the Sahel. One such incident included a French drone strike on a wedding, which killed 19 civilians. After another decade of corrupt leaders aligned with French neocolonial interests, worsening living conditions, and now deadly terrorist attacks leading to more territory being occupied, the Sahelian people supported popular military coups in Mali in 2021, Burkina Faso in 2022 and Niger in 2023. The Western-aligned Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), headed by Nigeria, immediately sanctioned Mali in 2022 and Niger in 2023, threatening to invade Niger militarily. The EU also followed suit, sanctioning Mali and Niger. Consequently, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger signed a mutual defence agreement on 16 September 2023, the Liptako-Gourma accords, and have since left ECOWAS.
Resource sovereignty and nation-building
These nations immediately began to expel French and US troops and crack down on imperialist media like Radio France Internationale. Street names and monuments have been renamed after pan-African leaders. In Niger, Hausa is the official language, replacing French, and in Burkina Faso, colonial-style white wigs in court have been banned. The AES sought out deeper relations with China and Russia in particular, which are assisting in developing major sectors of the AES economy. Russia, for example, is involved in the construction of gold refineries in both Burkina Faso and Mali, supporting the AES’ goal of stopping exports of raw gold and instead refining it at home. Mining accounts for 86% of the AES’ export revenue. These public-private partnerships are currently a relatively favourable arrangement for the AES, which receives capital and transfer of technical know-how with fewer strings attached, and China and Russia gain access to new markets.
The AES has enforced stricter mining codes on foreign multinational mining companies and nationalised multiple mines. Burkina Faso owns five mines under its new state-owned mining company SOPAMIB, boosting state revenue from mining. State revenue from gold mining companies in Mali jumped by 52.5% last year, despite a 23% decrease in gold production. In June this year, Niger completely took control of its uranium mines from the French nuclear fuel company Orano, citing reasons such as tax evasion and financing terrorism in the region. They have blocked uranium exports but are offering to compensate former shareholders. France imports 20% of its uranium from Niger, while only 20% of Niger’s population has access to electricity. Both Barrick Gold and Orano have raised arbitration cases through the World Bank against Mali and Niger respectively, attempting to prevent these developing countries from controlling their resources. Barrick Gold dropped its arbitration case in November 2025, agreeing to uphold Mali’s new mining laws and cough up $450m.
The AES anti-imperialist offensive
As the AES comes under renewed pressure from imperialist countries, especially through their armed jihadist proxies, the overall increase in revenue has been crucial in allowing these states to build up their defences. Since their respective coups, military spending has increased by 43% in Mali, 32% in Niger and 81% in Burkina Faso. New defence contracts signed with China, Russia, Turkey and Morocco have allowed the AES to significantly bolster their national armies, increasing the size and scale of military operations and equipping them with drones and IED-resistant armoured vehicles. The total landmass of the AES makes it the eighth largest nation in the world, and so the AES have formed a joint military task force to cover this vast region. Burkina Faso now controls 73% of its territory, and in November 2023, Mali reclaimed the city of Kidal, a major trade hub that had been a stronghold for separatist forces for years.
The recapture of land has enabled greater regional integration and development for the AES. A new AES biometric passport has been launched this year, and visa fees have been eliminated for all African travellers. Agricultural production is up by an average of 13% across the AES, thanks to higher investment in agricultural initiatives and the repatriation of over one million internally displaced people. Projects like ‘Faso Mebo’ in Burkina Faso have entire communities and organisations building roads together across the country, voluntarily donating both money and cement to the initiative. In Mali, a recent poll showed that around 90% of citizens believe that the AES is the solution to the region’s ongoing issues. This is reflected in the AES’ withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, denouncing it as a ‘neocolonial tool of selective justice’ and ‘silent about the worst crimes by the West and its allies’ and has instead established a Sahelian Criminal and Human Rights Court. The Sahelian people are firmly behind their revolution. In a recent interview, Ibrahim Traoré stated ‘We are not just fighting for Burkina Faso, we are fighting for all of Africa.’
Imperialism encircles Mali
US imperialism is rethinking its approach to the AES, having recently replaced former US Africa Command’s commander, Michael Langley, following his aggression against Traoré, which led to global protests (see FRFI 306: Burkina Faso resisting imperialist aggression). Testing the waters, the US State Department implemented a $5,000-$10,000 bond for Malian nationals seeking to visit, and in response, Mali reciprocated this measure, leading to the US quickly removing its bond. US imperialism is looking to compete with Russian and Chinese influence, having recently signed a deal in October with the Malian government to acquire its Morila mine and start production, the first US investment under Mali’s new mining code.
The NATO-backed terrorist groups, such as Al-Qaeda aligned JNIM and Islamic State Sahel Province, have suffered serious losses. In desperation, JNIM moved its operations south and launched a ‘fuel blockade’ in Mali at the start of September this year, targeting oil trucks and severely affecting supply to the capital Bamako and targeting border cities such as Kayes near Senegal, Bougouni and Sikasso near Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, Nioro du Sahel near Mauritania and Menaka and Gao near Niger. Fuel prices spiked, long lines for fuel awaited motorists, and public services were restricted; schools across the country were forced to shut for two weeks. Major shipping companies like Swiss-based MSC and French-based CMA CGM announced the suspension of operations at the start of November, helping the terrorists constrict the nation. The US, Britain, Germany and France advised their citizens to leave the country amidst the crisis.
Multiple news outlets, like The Guardian, have peddled the ridiculous narrative that JNIM is ‘converging on Mali’s capital’ and has the capacity to turn Mali into a ‘jihadist mandate’ like that of Syria. The Telegraph reports that ‘Al-Qaeda are poised to take over an entire country’. Reuters and other news outlets regurgitate JNIM propaganda, which is routinely disproven by Mali’s armed forces (FAMA), who show visual evidence of defeat for the terrorists. JNIM simply lacks the military or logistical capacity to undertake such an operation, even Nicolas Lerner, Head of French Intelligence, admitted this in an interview on 10 November. Despite this, the African Union (AU) released a statement, expressing concern at the situation in Mali, calling for urgent international intervention. This is the same AU that suspended Mali in 2021 following its revolution and remains silent on the fall of El-Fasher to the RSF in Sudan.
The glee of the imperialists quickly faded as the Malian government immediately responded, enhancing military escorts for the fuel tankers and conducting surgical strikes on new terrorist bases on its borders. The government consulted truck driver unions, providing free health care to injured drivers and reducing waiting times for truck drivers at checkpoints. The Malian people willingly volunteered, helping at the long lines for fuel, providing food, water, and even sharing fuel to help soldiers. Thousands of tankers have streamed into Mali as supply routes have been secured, allowing schools and universities to reopen and public services to resume. MSC and CMA CGM have quickly restarted operations following negotiations. Mali even inaugurated a new lithium mine in Bougouni during the crisis. Meanwhile, JNIM have since released a statement in late November, calling on NGOs and human rights organisations to support them against the AES ‘junta governments’. Overcoming this destabi-lisation attempt would not have been possible without the Malian people’s solidarity and steadfastness, as well as support from the other AES nations. Abdoulaye Diop, Mali’s Foreign Minister, stated ‘[the AES] chose to break the chain of dependency, to break the chain of subjugation to colonial domination.’ The rest of Africa must follow suit.
Long live the AES!
Imperialism out of Africa!
This is an edited version of a speech delivered on 19 October 2025 at Bolivar Hall, London as part of the RCG National Weekend. Recordings of all the speeches can be found at youtube.com/rcgfrfi
