On 16 September 2023, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso signed the Liptako-Gourma Charter, establishing a new alliance between the three French-speaking African states of the Sahel. An alliance that laid the groundwork for even greater change.

In December, the leader of Niger’s revolutionary government announced on Niger’s national television the shared goal of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso to establish not only a military and political alliance, but also a monetary one:

“Beyond the security ambit, our alliance must evolve in the political ambit and the monetary ambit”.

The three countries, and five others in the region, currently use the West African CFA franc, a currency linked to the euro and seen by critics as a legacy of French colonial rule.

Burkina Faso’s leader, Ibrahim Traoré, speaking on Burkinabe national television on the same days, also hinted at the economic alliance between the countries: “The Alliance of Sahel States is a defence alliance a priori, but it will evolve into an economic alliance and much more”.

In November 2023, the finance ministers of the three states issued a joint statement recommending the creation of a committee of experts to study the issue of economic union and monetary union. This is a historic initiative to re-establish their monetary sovereignty by creating a common currency called “Sahel”. This decision is a break with the agreements with France.

France remains a racist and colonial power that maintains a colonial relationship with 14 African countries (Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea-Bissau since 2 May 1997, Mali until 1962 and since 1984, Niger, Senegal, Togo) through the CFA Franc, the currency imposed some 80 years ago. The currency was created at the behest of De Gaulle who, by granting false independence to African countries, in reality kept them under French influence when, on 26 December 1945, he ratified the Bretton Woods Agreements, rehabilitating the monetary mechanism that Hitler had imposed on France in 1939, allowing Germany to seize almost all of France’s wealth free of charge.