The Alliance of Sahel States (AES) is proving to be a force to be reckoned with in Africa. The masses of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have made advances in reclaiming their land, resources and sovereignty from both imperialist and jihadist forces. Burkina Faso now controls 70% of its territory compared to 40% last summer. Mali detained the CEO of Resolute Mining, an Australian multinational company, over its unpaid taxes. Niger has seized French-owned Orano’s uranium mining operations. With Senegal, Chad and now Ivory Coast also expelling French troops, France is scrambling to save face in west Africa. Cassius J Kalany reports.
Land, resources and internal struggles
As reported by Burkina Faso Minister of Foreign Affairs, Karamoko Jean Marie Traoré, at a UN address in September 2024, 700,000 internally displaced people have been returned to their homes and 1,500 schools reopened due to the state’s armed forces capturing and securing land previously occupied by jihadist groups. These successes alongside the nationalisation of industry, particularly in the mining sector, has allowed larger investments in agricultural initiatives, leading to a 20% increase in cereal production compared to the previous five years. Burkina Faso recently unveiled its first-ever tomato processing plant, a landmark in its fight for food self-sufficiency.
Mali is standing up to foreign multinational mining companies, forcing Resolute Mining to pay $160m. Mali is also battling Canadian company Barrick Gold which it is chasing for $500m in unpaid taxes, so Mali has issued an arrest warrant for the CEO Mark Bristow. On 14 January the Malian government seized three tons of gold worth $245m from Barrick. Mali’s economy ministry estimates that Barrick owes a total $5.5bn to the Malian government. Mali has blocked gold exports from the Loulo-Gounkoto mines, which are 80% owned by Barrick, and suspended operations indefinitely. Mali is now set to earn $1.2bn in the first quarter of this year from its mining law reforms.
Niger is now in control of two out of three mines owned by Orano, blocking uranium exports. As a result, Orano has reported a $133m loss in the first half of 2024. Niger’s uranium, which Nigeriens see little return from, accounted for 25% of the supply to nuclear power plants in Europe in 2022 and 20% of all uranium imports to France in the last decade.
These successes have precipitated internal struggle. In Mali, former Prime Minister Choguel Maïga was removed from his post after publicly criticising Assimi Goíta’s military government’s lack of transparency regarding key decisions around elections, which have been announced for this year. Choguel has since been investigated for embezzlement. His successor Abdoulaye Maiga has created a task force to oversee solar power plant projects that could cover 82% of Mali’s energy needs, and to reform Mali Energy – a historically corrupt national energy supplier.
On 6 December 2024, Burkina Faso’s president, Captain Ibrahim Traore, dissolved the government, replacing the prime minister Kyelem Tambela with government spokesman Jean Emmanuel Ouederago, who has outlined an ambitious manifesto aiming to build 50,000 urban homes by 2030. On 27 November 2024, hundreds of militants from the Coordination of Free Forces of Niger, a coalition of pro-Western and anti-government forces, laid down their weapons as part of Niger’s dialogue process for national unity.
Imperialism in disarray
Niger arrested a French spy in November 2024 and unmasked the identities of many others attempting to destabilise the region. In December 2024, Burkina Faso released four French spies that it captured in December 2023 through Moroccan mediation with France. On 15 December 2024 the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a French-aligned economic bloc, had to recognise the planned exit of the AES set for 29 January 2025. However, Nigeria’s president and head of ECOWAS, Bola Tinubu, attempted to delay the withdrawal of the AES by six months. The AES immediately rejected this and opened its arms to all African nations seeking to ‘reclaim their sovereignty’, offering visa-free travel and residency rights for ECOWAS citizens. The diaspora of the AES countries took to the streets in France on 18 January 2025 to celebrate this victory.
The AES has considerably weakened French control over west Africa, much to the fury of Emmanuel Macron. In a racist public address responding to troops withdrawing from Ivory Coast he said ‘I think they forgot to say thank you. Ingratitude… it is a disease that cannot be transmitted to humans.’ This ‘ingratitude’ is regarding France’s disastrous military interventions in west Africa which galvanised the jihadist militias. Traore retorted saying ‘He insulted all Africans’ and that ‘Macron should pray to Africans because he needs to thank our ancestors that France exists’. Burkina Faso’s strengthening of ties with Ghana during a state visit on 7 January was met with disgraceful hostility from the BBC which described Traore as an unnamed ‘gun-wielding leader’ who sparked ‘concern’, a statement quickly disproved by footage from Ghana showing mass celebrations at Traore’s visit. Ghanaian president John Mahama remarked ‘Traore received the loudest applause’.
International solidarity
During his UN address last September, Burkina Faso’s Minister of Foreign Affairs reaffirmed his country’s support for the Palestinian liberation struggle and also denounced the blockade on Cuba and the economic sanctions on Venezuela. A delegation from the AES visited Cuba in November 2024: delegates from the Thomas Sankara Centre in Burkina Faso, the Union of Nigerien Students and Malian Headquarters of the Revolution were warmly received by the Cuban Institute of Friendship with Peoples. They met Victor Dreke, veteran of Cuba’s military campaign that assisted Angola against apartheid forces and president of the Cuba-African Friendship Association. They visited Havana’s African Heroes Park which has busts of African revolutionaries including Modiba Keita, Mali’s former pan-Africanist and socialist independence leader. Cuba has explored potential investments in Burkina Faso and the Venezuelan president of the National Assembly Jorge Rodriguez held a bilateral meeting with authorities representing Burkina Faso on 12 January. This comes after Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro led chants for Burkina Faso at his inauguration on 10 January.
As the AES builds towards becoming a federation through deeper economic, social and military cooperation, anti-imperialists across the world must condemn and confront all imperialist interference.
Hands off the Sahel!
Down with imperialism!
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 304 February/March 2025
