Senegalese president strengthens ties with Mali amid crisis

Senegalese president Bassirou Diomaye Faye is visiting Mali on the 28th of July. According to RFI, the West African president comes as the Senegalese head of government but also as the current president of the Economic Community of West African States (Cédéao), which Mali left in January 2025. Alongside the Burkinabese and Nigerien military juntas, Mali created a new political and economic organisation called the Alliance of Sahel States, making a statement to the West African community. 

President Diomaye Faye will meet his counterpart Assimi Goita, only a few days after founding his own party in Dakar. 

Diomaye Faye had already visited Mali once in May 2024, a few weeks after his investiture as well as a couple of months after Mali’s withdrawal announcement from the Cédéao. Currently the president of the West African organisation since the 19th of July, Diomaye Faye plans to discuss the partnerships and relations between the two organisations in the Sahel and West Africa, particularly as he is accompanied by negotiator Lansana Kouyate.

The Bamako and Dakar route is one of the most essential supply routes for Mali. Due to the presence of terrorist groups such as the Al Qaeda-affiliated JNIM, as well as the Azawad Liberation Front, Mali and its Alliance of Sahel States counterparts have been subjected to violent fighting across all three territories. The Malian government, with the support of the Kremlin-affiliated AfricaCorps, has lost territory in the north of the country, leading to Mali diplomatically reaching out to countries with which relations had been stained by diplomatic crisis. For instance, Algiers and Bamako have restored diplomatic and economic ties shortly after the loss of Kidal and violent attacks on Malian military bases. The two countries share a nearly 1400km border in the North of Mali, where jihadist factions have taken refuge or settled.

All three military juntas of the Alliance of Sahel states are accused of war crimes as well as many violations of human rights alongside the Russian paramilitary group Africa Corps.

RFI, Maghrebi.org