Burkina Faso,, Mali skip Nigeria-hosted African defence talks

Burkina Faso and Mali did not send representatives to a continental military meeting hosted by Nigeria Monday as relations between the junta-led Sahel countries and their west African neighbours remain tense.

Along with Niger — also under military rule — Mali and Burkina Faso withdrew from regional bloc ECOWAS in January, after forming their own Alliance of Sahel States (AES) as they battle long-running jihadist insurgencies.

Niger, represented by embassy defence attache Colonel Major Soumana Kalkoye, was the only AES country at the African defence chiefs of staff talks, hosted in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

Billed by Nigerian authorities as the first such high-level pan-African meet hosted on the continent, the conference drew high ranking officers from Djibouti to Namibia for “discussions on collective strategies” and finding “homegrown solutions to Africa’s defence needs”, according to its programming.

Speaking of security challenges that “recognise no borders”, Nigerian Chief of the Defence Staff Christopher Musa called for “a new architecture of African-led security cooperation”.

“True security is not achieved in isolation,” Musa told officers gathered for the talks, set to run through Wednesday.

Niger and Nigeria have at times faced their own setbacks in military cooperation in the fight against Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province militants that span their borders.

Relations between the neighbours reached a low after the 2023 coup when ECOWAS levied sanctions on Niger and — under Nigerian leadership — threatened military action to restore ousted civilian president Mohamed Bazoum to power.

Tensions have since thawed, with the countries signing a security memorandum last year, though Niger’s pull-back from a regional military task force has hampered cross-border action against militants in the Lake Chad region.

Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have seen their military cooperation stall with neighbours like Benin, which is attempting to push back against a spillover of the Sahel’s armed groups.

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