Three Sahel countries to create joint anti-jihadist force amid growing insecurity

Junta-led Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have agreed to create a joint force to battle security threats, most notably long-running jihadist rebellions, across their territories.
Violence in the wider Sahel region fueled by the decade-long fight with Islamist groups has worsened since the three countries’ militaries seized power in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023. The army chiefs of the three military-ruled countries on Wednesday (6 March) announced the creation of a new joint force that “will be operational as soon as possible to take into account the security challenges in our space”, Niger’s army chief Moussa Salaou Barmou said in a statement following talks in Niamey. “We are convinced that, with the combined efforts of our three countries, we will manage to create the conditions for a shared security,” he added.
The decision is the latest sign of closer alignment that has emerged since the three neighbors severed military ties with longstanding allies including France, a former colonial power, and formed a cooperation pact known as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). The new junta regimes have also strengthened ties with Russia, which has moved in to fill the void, and announced they were leaving the West African economic bloc ECOWAS. While no information about the size of the joint force was made available, Barmou said the three armies had agreed to develop an “operational concept” that would allow them to reach their defense and security objectives. A jihadist revolt broke out in northern Mali in 2012 before spreading to neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015, killing thousands and displacing millions across the region.