The Sahel countries (Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso) have decided to put their armed forces on “alert”, accusing the economic community of West African States (ECOWAS) of seeking to “destabilize” them, in a new escalation that increases tension in the region threatened by terrorism and the international conflict between Russia and the West.
The three Sahel countries are ruled by military councils, which decided to break off their relations with France in recent years, and headed towards an alliance with Russia, and also decided to withdraw from the organization “ECOWAS”, and form a new alliance called the “alliance of Sahel countries” calculated on Moscow.
The leaders of the West African countries held a summit in Nigeria a week ago, during which they gave the Sahel countries a six-month deadline in order to reverse the decision to withdraw from the regional organization, which was issued in January of 2024, and comes into force in January of next year (2025).
The final statement of the summit of the regional organization stated that it”decided to consider the period from January 29, 2025, to July 29, 2025 as a transitional period, during which the doors of the economic community of West African states will remain open to the three countries”.
In the first response issued by the leaders of the Sahel African countries, the military ruling Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso said in a statement on Sunday that they reject the deadline issued by the regional organization, considering it an “external attempt to destabilize”.
The leaders of the Sahel countries added that the ECOWAS decision was “another attempt that will allow France and its supporters to continue planning and carrying out destabilizing actions against the alliance of Sahel countries”.
The Sahel states described the decision of the regional organization as a “unilateral decision”, said that it is “not binding on the alliance of Sahel states”, and reiterated that the decision to leave the regional organization is “irreversible”.
She added that instead of initiating cooperation and coordination between the economic community of West African States (ECOWAS) on the one hand, and the alliance of Sahel states on the other, in order to fulfill “the technical aspects associated with the withdrawal with immediate effect.”،
In the first escalation of its kind since the beginning of the crisis, the ruling military councils in the Sahel countries decided to mobilize their armed forces for fear of any step to destabilize them by the regional organization.
The Council of heads of state of the Sahel said that the decision to put the forces on “alert” was caused by attempts by what it described as the “French military junta and its supporters” to destabilize the region, and added in the same context that the targeting of (Sahel countries) was caused by “the adoption of this new strategic position by the establishment of the Confederation of Sahel countries, driven by legitimate aspirations for freedom and peace.
He stressed that since the disengagement from Paris, “the French imperialist junta, which feels that its interests are threatened, with the support of some heads of state of the region, is trying to put an end to the libertarian dynamic launched by the Confederation of the Sahel,” according to the statement.
The Council of heads of state of the Sahel, in its statement, said that it “noted with regret that destabilizing maneuvers within the Sahel Confederation are regularly carried out by heads of state imposing their desires and external agendas on the rest of the members of the ECOWAS group”.
The council said it was following with great interest what it described as “deception maneuvers initiated by the French military junta under the pretext of closing its military bases in some African countries, to replace them with less obvious arrangements that seek to achieve the same neo-colonial goals”.
The Sahel countries refer to the new French strategy to restructure its military presence in Africa, after withdrawing from the Sahel countries, the latest of which was the withdrawal from Chad, and focusing on its presence in Djibouti, Gabon, Cote d’ivoire and Senegal.
The Sahel countries accused the French of supporting terrorism, and the leaders of these countries said in their statement that “there are operations to reorganize and regroup terrorist groups in the Lake Chad Basin, in the Sahel region, and in some border areas of the Confederation countries with both Nigeria and Benin.
The statement added that” these terrorist groups receive various forms of support from foreign countries, in particular financial and logistical resources aimed at destabilizing the region, “noting that in front of this situation,”decided to put the defense and security forces on high alert.
This escalation comes after Niger accused its neighbor Nigeria of involvement in an armed attack targeting a pipeline transporting oil from Niger to a port in Benin, and Niger summoned the charge d’affaires at the embassy of Nigeria, protesting against its country’s involvement in the “destabilization of Niger”.
The three Sahelian States (Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso) have already signed a charter stressing that “any attack on the sovereignty or territorial integrity of one party will be considered aggression against the other parties and will require assistance from all parties, including the use of military force”.
Nigeria rejected the charges issued by Niger, saying in a statement issued by Nigeria’s foreign minister that it “denies in the strongest terms any allegation that Nigerian security forces supported the attack by gunmen on the Niger – Benin pipeline on December 13”.
Nigeria stressed that it is “resolutely committed to the war on terrorism,” denying that it had any involvement in the attack that deepened the rift between the two countries and had repercussions on the regional situation in West Africa.
