Rival West African alliance to launch new passports

Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger ditched regional bloc ECOWAS in January, claiming it posed a threat to their sovereignty

Mali’s transitional president has announced that his country will, along with Burkina Faso and Niger, launch new biometric passports under the new Alliance of Sahel States (AES) they formed last year after falling out with the West African regional bloc.

Colonel Assimi Goita’s declaration on Sunday came days after Burkina Faso’s military government issued new biometric passports without the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) logo on the covers.

Burkinabe Security Minister Mahamadou Sana clarified that the removal of the ECOWAS symbol from the documents was in response to Ouagadougou’s decision to withdraw from the union.

“In the coming days, a new biometric passport of the AES will be put into circulation with the aim of harmonizing travel documents in our common area and facilitating the mobility of our citizens throughout the world,” Goita said in a speech marking the first anniversary of the AES.

READ MORE: Sahel state snubs regional bloc with passport move

Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger jointly announced in January that they were leaving the 15-nation regional grouping, accusing it of posing a threat to their sovereignty by serving as a tool for foreign powers. The bloc, home to more than 400 million people, had threatened to send a French-backed military force to invade Niger to restore democratic order after the ouster of Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum in July 2023.

The three military rulers have severed defense ties with Paris, citing meddling and the failure of its soldiers to quell jihadist violence in the Sahel despite their engagement for more than a decade. They have also accused the authority of failing to assist them in combating the longstanding jihadist violence in the Sahel region.

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ECOWAS denies the allegations and has since sought to convince the three states to reconsider their decision, warning that their breakaway would undermine free trade and movement within the region. It lifted economic and travel sanctions against Bamako, Niamey, and Ouagadougou in February, and recently appointed Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye to negotiate the return of the Sahel leaders.

The former French colonies have declared that they will not rejoin the West African political and economic bloc, which they had been part of for nearly five decades.

In a joint statement late on Monday, the interim leaders of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger said they had “instructed the competent ministers to urgently develop draft additional protocols” to address potential implications of their ECOWAS exit.