Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali juntas plan three-way partnership

The foreign ministers of Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali, all ruled by military juntas have proposed a regional partnership to facilitate trade and tackle insecurity in the region, they said in a joint statement late on Thursday.

The ministers met in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou this week to discuss collaboration. All three West African countries have experienced military takeovers since 2020, reversing democratic gains that had seen the region shed its tag as Africa’s coup belt.

Frustrations over governments’ inability to protect civilians from a worsening jihadist insurgency spurred some of the putsches, which have led to economic sanctions and soured relations with regional and Western allies.

Foreign ministers Olivia Rouamba for Burkina Faso,Morissansa Kouyate for Guinea and Abdoulaye Diop for Mali noted the need to set up and institutionalise a permanent coordination framework between the three countries.

The Bamako Conakry Ouagadougou link will be a basis for fuel and electricity exchanges, transport links, cooperation on mineral resource extraction, rural development and trade.

All three countries were suspended from The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Africa Union as a result. ECOWAS also imposed sanctions on Guinea and Mali for dragging their feet on restoring constitutional order, which will only be lifted if ultimatums set last year are respected.

The three ministers deplored the measures and called for technical and financial support for their democratic transitions. There have been two coups in Mali since 2020, one in Guinea in 2021 and two in Burkina Faso last year. Source: sabcnews