The Paradoxes of Revolution Within the Alliance of Sahel States
Le Mot du Week-end (19 September 2026)
On 16 September 2023, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger established the Alliance of Sahel States, a confederation bringing these three states together to foster political and economic cooperation and mutual defense.
Historical background
Since 2003, the Sahel has been the scene of a jihadist insurgency behind multiple conflicts in the region, notably the war in Mali and the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria. In 2020, General Assimi Goita orchestrated a coup d’état in Mali and, in 2022, withdrew Mali from the G5 Sahel Group, which was backed by the international community. Niger and Burkina Faso followed Mali’s example in 2023. In January 2022, a military coup in Burkina Faso brought Captain Ibrahim Traoré to power. In July 2023, a coup overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum in Niger, bringing General Abdouramane Tiani to power.
In 2022, Malian authorities terminated their defense agreements with France, accusing French forces of failing to contain the Islamist rebellion and of interfering in the country’s internal political affairs. In January 2023, Burkina Faso officially terminated its military agreements with France and demanded the immediate withdrawal of 400 French Special Forces troops stationed on its territory. In July 2023, the Nigerien government likewise ordered the withdrawal of 1,500 French troops deployed on its territory, leading to a total diplomatic rupture between France and Niger.
According to Nathalie Yamb, a commentator specializing in West African affairs, these three countries illustrate the trajectory Africa should adopt. The conflict over African countries’ sovereignty follows at least one clear direction. The unanimous votes by African countries at the United Nations in France’s favor, and the European directives on how meetings are conducted within the Organization of African Unity – still funded by Europe – now belong to the past. According to Ms. Yamb, the three Sahel states are making favorable progress toward African sovereignty.
The case of Burkina Faso: Sankara’s revenge?
In this edition of MDW (“Le Mot du Week-end”), we take stock of the revolutionary struggle underway in one of the Sahel Alliance’s member countries. This is Burkina Faso, where I completed two years of a mathematics degree (1990-1992) and where I have kept excellent relationships with former colleagues and with many families. President Ibrahim Traoré can be seen as the reincarnation of the revolutionary Thomas Sankara, who inspired deep admiration among African youth.
Ibrahim Traoré is a president who does not merely invoke sovereignty, but who keeps pushing his country’s development in order to free it from its dependence on France. He has turned to Russia and China, not with the aim of bringing in Russian and Chinese engineers, but to secure a genuine transfer of technology. Burkina Faso’s development rests on Burkinabè expertise. Ibrahim Traoré’s invocations of patriotism come paired with concrete achievements on the ground. And that is precisely what constitutes Africa’s future, as Nathalie Yamb argues – a view I fully share. On the ground, however, a major problem persists, insofar as the former colonial power, France, still holds several levers that it is progressively mobilizing to undermine President Ibrahim Traoré’s revolutionary project.
An economy under strain
A contact from Burkina Faso reports that on his flight from Paris to Ouagadougou, not a single passenger of Western origin was on board. His reading of this is that commercial activity in the country is declining steadily and inexorably. He used to regularly sell computers in Ouagadougou. Today, it is no longer possible for anyone to buy a computer the way it used to be done. In short, very little capital is now circulating in Ouagadougou.
Traoré’s administration has shown itself to be serious. It ensures the regular payment of civil servants’ salaries. Everyone I know who works in the administration receives a satisfactory income, paid reliably every month. However, the state does not have the capacity to employ the entire working-age population. Two-thirds of Burkina Faso’s population used to depend on formal and informal commercial activities to meet their needs. Today, that situation is fading, and most of the population finds itself without the resources needed to survive.
The risk of a counter-revolution
Ibrahim Traoré’s innovative proposals are worth paying attention to and illustrate the direction Africa should take. However, faced with an increasingly impoverished population, the revolution runs into obstacles that could prove insurmountable and trigger counter-revolutions capable of bringing the country back under French tutelage.
What “Le Mot du Week-end” proposes
The solutions MDW proposes are to train experts in national economic management, including not only technicians but also seasoned economists and anthropologists. The second effort concerns independence in monetary creation, an undeniable indicator of sovereignty. As long as France remains the holder of the CFA franc and keeps supplying it to African economies, no revolution will be able to take hold. There is still a considerable distance to cover, yet Traoré is making good progress. Every African country should follow this example, since unity is a source of strength. Intellectuals in these countries have a duty to anticipate these pitfalls in order to help prevent obstacles from derailing the revolutionary process. African intellectuals’ contribution should also include theorizing the directions African revolutionaries should take. It is no longer time to remain wholly subservient to Donald Trump, nor to hand over national resources to imperialists. What is needed, instead, is to build up local expertise in extracting and processing minerals within the very countries that hold these resources. This is a fierce struggle against an imperialism concealed behind the appearance of a hegemonic democracy.