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Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

Sahel Alliance Unveils New Flag; Moves Toward Greater Integration

March 8, 2025 Nicholas Mwangi, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , ,
The Alliance of Sahel States (AES), that includes Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, has taken another decisive step toward regional integration following its recent withdrawal from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). On February 22, the new flag was unveiled and symbolizes the bloc’s growing autonomy as it seeks to redefine its political, economic, and security structures outside the influence of French imperialism and Western neoliberal frameworks. The new flag showcases the AES logo: an orange sun radiating over a sturdy baobab tree. Beneath the tree, a group of silhouetted figures gathers, symbolizing unity.

What’s Happening In Niger?

January 3, 2025 Pedro Stropasolas, People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , , ,
“Homeland or death, we will win.” This sign stands in the Place de la Patrie, one of the cradles of the popular struggle against France in Niamey, the capital of Niger. Today, it serves as a meeting point where people gather, chat, and watch the movement on Boulevard Zarmaganda, home to the headquarters of the first popular committee supporting the Nigerien army. “It used to be called Place de la Francophonie. Today, it’s Place de la Patrie because this is the birthplace of the patriotic struggle for complete national sovereignty. A week after the coup d’état, we moved here.

Niger Hosts Historic Conference On The Fight Against Neocolonialism

November 19, 2024 Pavan Kulkarni, People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , ,
Delegates from the popular movements, labor unions, peasant organizations, and left parties in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the US have arrived in Niamey, the capital of Niger, to attend the “Conference in Solidarity with the Peoples of the Sahel” from November 19 to 21. The Pan Africanism Today Secretariat (PAT) and the West Africa People’s Organization (WAPO) have organized this conference “For Anti-Imperialist Unity, Peace, and Friendship between Peoples”, at the time of a critical breakthrough against Francafrique in Sahelian West Africa. Amid a wave of mass protests against the continued stranglehold of France over its former colonies, popularly supported military coups in Mali in 2020 and 2021, in Burkina Faso in 2022, and in Niger in 2023 swept away the regimes domestically perceived as subservient to France.

Niger Resists In The Crosshairs Of Sanctions And Climate Catastrophe

November 12, 2024 Pavan Kulkarni, People's Dispatch. , , , , , , ,
In the aftermath of devastation left behind in the wake of unprecedented floods, Nigeriens are rebuilding their livelihoods and economy with the help of the several relief measures instituted by the government to drastically cut prices of essential commodities and services. The Sahel-wide flooding between June and October has exacted a particularly high toll on the people of Niger, destroying crops, cattle, houses and infrastructure in one of the world’s poorest countries whose economy had already been strangled by the seven month-long sanctions.

For The Defense Of The Alliance Of Sahel States, Revolutionary Pan-Africanism

May 1, 2024 The Coalition For The Elimination Of Imperialism In Africa, Black Agenda Report. , , , , , ,
In 2011, Africa suffered a devastating blow with the collapse of the socialist Libyan Jamahiriya and the assassination of a great son of Africa, Comrade Muammar Gaddafi, at the hands of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in complicity with corrupt Africans. To the collective west, Gaddafi's crime was that he wished for a truly independent and sovereign Africa. In 2009, as Chairman of the African Union, Gaddafi suggested the creation of an independent continental currency, the gold dinar. This would free the continent from its economic subservience to the US dollar and the French African Franc (CFA).

Mali, Burkina Faso, And Niger Withdraw From ECOWAS

January 30, 2024 People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , ,
In a televised statement on Sunday, January 28, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger announced their withdrawal from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Their exit has shrunk the regional bloc, condemned by West Africa’s popular movements as an agent of French imperialism, to less than half its previous size, given the relatively vast expanse of Mali and Niger in the region. Reduced from 15 member states to 12, ECOWAS has nevertheless said that the three countries, against whom it was set to go to war last year, “remain important members,” although it had already suspended and sanctioned them.

Mali Warns Against Repeat Of NATO’s Libyan War In Niger

September 28, 2023 People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , ,
France’s ambassador to Niger, Sylvain Itté, left Niamey early on September 27, three days after Paris announced that it would also withdraw its 1,500 troops from the West African country by the end of the year. Niger has joined its regional neighbors, Mali and Burkina Faso, in expelling French troops from its soil. The three countries have since forged a pact for collective defense and mutual cooperation, known as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), amid rising attacks by armed groups in the region. The AES was formed just days before the 78th session of the United National General Assembly.

Is This The End Of French Neo-Colonialism In Africa?

September 23, 2023 Zoe Alexandra and Vijay Prashad, People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , , , , ,
In Bamako, Mali, on September 16, the governments of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger created the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). On X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, Colonel Assimi Goïta, the head of the transitional government of Mali, wrote that the Liptako-Gourma Charter which created the AES would establish “an architecture of collective defense and mutual assistance for the benefit of our populations.” The hunger for such regional cooperation goes back to the period when France ended its colonial rule. Between 1958 and 1963, Ghana and Guinea were part of the Union of African States, which was to have been the seed for wider pan-African unity. Mali was a member as well between 1961 and 1963.

Burkina Faso, Mali, And Niger Form Alliance Of Sahel States

September 18, 2023 Tanupriya Singh, People's Dispatch. , , , , , ,
In a major advancement towards mutual cooperation, the governments of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). The move was finalized with the signing of the Liptako-Gourma Charter, named after the tri-border region shared by the three countries, in Mali’s capital Bamako on Saturday, September 16. “This alliance will be a combination of military and economic efforts between the three countries…Our priority is the fight against terrorism,” Malian Defense Minister Abdoulaye Diop told journalists. The three countries have committed to “prevent, manage, and resolve any armed rebellion or threat to the territorial integrity and sovereignty…

Niger’s Government Accuses France Of Mobilizing For War

September 13, 2023 Pavan Kulkarni, People's Dispatch. , , , , ,
Questioning the “sincerity” of France’s comments about the withdrawal of its troops from Niger, the transitional military government, the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP), has accused the former colonizer of mobilizing for war. CNSP spokesperson Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane said on September 9 that a “hundred or so rotations of [French] military cargo planes unloaded large quantities of war material and equipment” in multiple member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). He added that “two A400M type military transport aircraft and a Dornier 328 were deployed as reinforcements in Ivory Coast”, and “two Super Puma type multi-role helicopters” and “around forty armored vehicles” have been deployed “in Kandi and Malanville in Benin”.