Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso: a common front but no "federation" at this stage

The Foreign Ministers of Guinea, Burkina Faso and Mali, during a press conference in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on February 9, 2023. AFP - OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT

Text by: David Baché

5 mins

The Malian, Burkinabè and Guinean Ministers of Foreign Affairs met on February 9 for an unprecedented tripartite meeting in Ouagadougou.

Since then, rumors have been swirling about the constitution of a federation.

The three countries have certainly decided to form a common front, but the constitution of a federation is in no way envisaged for the moment. 

Advertisement

Read more

This meeting was in no way used to act or even to prepare a federation between the three countries.

This would be a huge change because a federation would mean that

would decide to form a single country governed by a federal system, like in the United States, Germany or Russia.

No federation...

That said, the word does not come out of nowhere, it comes from the mouth of the Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, Apollinaire Kyélem de Tambela.

It was he who pronounced it even before this tripartite meeting since he had spoken about it during his visit to Bamako at the beginning of February.

"

," he said. 

It was therefore a personal idea which was taken up neither by the Malian authorities nor by the Guinean authorities.

Not even by any other official voice in Burkina.

This was a "non-binding" statement which, at this stage, is not an official draft at all.

...but a common front

What is clear, however, is that the tripartite meeting which took place in Ouagadougou a week ago was an opportunity to display a rapprochement, a united front of these three countries which share a common situation.

All three have experienced a military coup, are all in a period of transition and, as such, are all three suspended, but still members of the bodies of the African Union and

.

They will therefore only be able to sit on the bodies of these organizations again when they have returned to constitutional order.

That is, when they have elected leaders.

► To read also: ECOWAS specifies its project for a new anti-terrorist and anti-coup force

If not to create a federation, what is the project of the three leaders?

It's simply to join forces.

They announced that they would form a common front on two levels.

The first concerns the suspension of AU and ECOWAS bodies.

The three Malian, Guinean and Burkinabè Ministers of Foreign Affairs declared that they wanted to carry out "

" to

without however specifying which ones.

Most likely, it is a form of collective political advocacy with these institutions: denouncing with one voice the problems and even the injustice that this represents in their eyes, in particular the fact that it reduces their possibilities of being heard and to take part in decisions that may affect them, for example, in terms of security or development.

The latter is also the second level of this common front since the three ministers discussed a long series of very diverse projects on the supply of hydrocarbons and electricity, the development of trade and transport from the port of Conakry, the common organization of mining, the construction of a railway line linking their three capitals or even the construction of new roads.

In short, very concrete ideas even if the details are lacking.

But according to Baba Dakono, executive secretary of the Citizen Observatory on Governance and Security in Bamako, interviewed by RFI, these ideas are not new.

They in fact take up a plan that had been drawn up by the G5 Sahel, an organization whose door Mali slammed last May.

The Malian researcher explains above all that these announcements will come up against a problem of financing.

Moreover, the three ministers openly requested technical and financial support and we understand in the press release that this appeal is primarily addressed to ECOWAS and the African Union.

So what is undeniable, even if we are not talking about a federation in the formal sense and whatever happens to these announced projects, is that Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea have decided to unite.

Reintegrate sub-regional bodies

For its part, ECOWAS did not react to this meeting between the three countries.

The reports of these three countries and ECOWAS are tumultuous.

This is even more the case for Mali than for the other two.

Recently, the Malian transitional authorities even directly attacked the president of ECOWAS, the Bissau-Guinean Umaru Sissoco Embalo, with remarks bordering on insult during the episode of the Ivorian soldiers arrested in Mali.

But even without an official reaction, one can suspect that the initiative must not have aroused much enthusiasm on the side of ECOWAS but rather mistrust, even disdain.

A member of the West African Monetary Union (UEMOA) moreover summed up the general state of mind fairly well with this question: “

". 

It is therefore the future that will tell whether or not this new alliance bears fruit.

And it should also be remembered that in their communiqué, Mali, Burkina and Guinea reaffirm their “

” to the “

” and “

” of the African Union and ECOWAS.

Their request is not to leave them, but on the contrary to reintegrate the authorities of these two organizations.

The next steps, with in particular these “joint initiatives” announced by the three countries, will no doubt help to shed light on all this and will perhaps elicit clearer reactions from the sub-regional body. 

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

• mali

• Guinea

• Burkina Faso

• ECOWAS

• African Union

• Diplomacy

• our selection