Burkina Faso: State visit signals shifting regional relations
On the 16th of September, Sierra Leone’s president Julius Maada Bio became the first leader of ECOWAS to visit Burkina Faso’s leader Ibrahim Traoré, in what has been described as a significant “turning point in relations”, as reported by Africa News via the Associated press.
Since the formation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) last year, and the subsequent withdrawal of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in January 2025, the relations between ECOWAS and its former estranged members has been tense leading to a lack of cooperation on issues such as regional security.
There have been repeated calls from ECOWAS member states and from the ECOWAS chairman, Julius Maada Bio, for the Sahel juntas to rejoin the regional bloc. This pressure on the newly formed AES has gone beyond simple rhetoric and has turned into economic sanctions alongside the official suspension of their membership due to the Junta’s undemocratic rule.
Ibrahim Traoré took charge of Burkina Faso in a military coup back in 2022, he has built his reputation on the back of anti-imperialist and anti-western sentiment and has urged fellow African nation-states to unshackle themselves from the neocolonial chains of former colonial powers, such as France. This anticolonial rhetoric has taken shape in the form of removing French security forces from Burkina Faso, which has happened in tandem with a shift towards Vladamir Putin’s growing sphere of influence in the Sahel, enabled through the growing presence of the Russian African Corps.
The removal of French military forces in Burkina Faso and across the region has meant that a vacuum has been created regarding the security of the Sahel, which the AES is under pressure to fill due to increasing militant attacks, as a result this vacuum has been filled by AES seeking security assistance from the Russian African Corps.
The invitation of Russian mercenaries does not come without its risks and there are worrying reports of the massacring of civilians by Russian forces in the Sahel, which has led to calls of an investigation into the conduct of the Russian African Corps in the Sahel by the United Nations in May this year.
The talks between Julius Maada Bio and Ibrahim Traoré’s at Burkina Faso’s presidential palace in Koulouba centered on regional security and international relations within the region. Although ECOWAS is primarily an economic union, these talks between its chairmen, and its former estranged member indicate an important step towards increased regional co-operation regarding security. This is a hopeful development regarding the security of the Sahel, as greater regional interdependence would allow a security landscape to counter the growing militant attacks, one that isn’t reliant on former colonial militaries or Russian mercenaries who have been accused of committing atrocities against civilians.
Africa News via AP, Maghrebi
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