World News @lemmy.ml NightOwl @lemm.ee 1 yr. ago

Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso sign Sahel security pact

www.reuters.com Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso sign Sahel security pact

Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, three West African Sahel nations ruled by military juntas, signed a security pact on Saturday promising to come to the aid of each other in case of any rebellion or external aggression.

25 comments

This is the best summary I could come up with:

BAMAKO, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, three West African Sahel nations ruled by military juntas, signed a security pact on Saturday promising to come to the aid of each other in case of any rebellion or external aggression.

The latest coup in Niger drove a further wedge between the three and countries of the regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States, which has threatened to use force to restore constitutional rule in the country.

Mali and Burkina Faso have vowed to come to Niger's aid if it is attacked.

"I have today signed with the Heads of State of Burkina Faso and Niger the Liptako-Gourma charter establishing the Alliance of Sahel States, with the aim of establishing a collective defence and mutual assistance framework," Mali junta leader Assimi Goita said on his X social media account.

All three states were members of the France-supported G5 Sahel alliance joint force with Chad and Mauritania, launched in 2017 to tackle Islamist groups in the region.

France has been forced to withdraw its troops from Mali and Burkina Faso, and is in a tense standoff with the junta that seized power in Niger after it asked it to withdraw its troops and its ambassador.

The original article contains 346 words, the summary contains 207 words. Saved 40%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Good on them for sticking to an Africa for Africans. Get the west out, let the people govern themselves.
- Niger is ditching ECOWAS for the security from other states that recently underwent coups. It’s hard to see how this is in the interest of the common person.
  
  Just because France is against the coup doesn’t mean it’s good for Nigeriens.
  
  From the media coming from Niger and other countries it definitely seems to me that the people are fully supportive of the coup. The other nations that underwent coups also were deposing west-installed leaders.
  
  It's called a purge. They've tried working within the Western rules based order for decades. It's not working to get the West out. So the coup is the next attempt at pushing out the West and the compradors in order to create the operating conditions for self-governance by the people for the people instead of these fake democracies that only exist to legitimize neocolonial dominance in a way that white people can't feel guilty about.
- Ah yes, "let people govern themselves" said the people who undemocraticly govern the countries without any legitimization after couping
  
  Ah yes, "we will judge how they rule themselves and demand they behave to our liking as part of them ruling themselves" said the colonists who dominated and subjugated 80% of the humans on the planet for 600 years.
- The people should be allowed to govern themselves I agree but it would be really naive to think that's what's happening here.
  
  For starters, the west isn't "out". Both the US and France still have boots on the ground in Niger.
  
  International mineral exploitation companies are still operating in the Sahel.
  
  Non-African mercenaries now have a strong presence in the Sahel as enforcers.
- There are things called elections that I encourage Africans to vote in instead of cheering on autocratic coups
  
  There are things called bullets that coup leaders use to stop ordinary citizens from carrying out democracy.
  
  There are things called arms dealers that provide the guns and bullets.
  
  There are things called oil companies and mining companies that provide support for governments that act in their favour.
  
  I could go on. But pretending that ordinary African people don't want fairly elected leadership would be cynical and intellectually dishonest.
- How about we support democracy instead of a military junta.
  
  If the junta had launched a coup because the president was corrupt or a tool it'd be one thing, but they did it because their leader was getting fired for being bad at his job.
- I agree that Africans should be in charge of their destiny, not foreign interests...but "Africa for Africans" sounds just as good/bad as "Europe for Europeans".
  
  @Gsus4 ... "Europe should be governed by Europeans" would have a different ring to it if Europe had been colonized by Africa and Africans were still having a massive input into how it was run, making Europe peg its currency to African currency, dispatching drones to bomb people at a wedding in the French countryside, mining mineral wealth and carrying it off to Africa, sending military "advisers" to tell Europeans how to govern etc etc etc.
  
  Take it a step further, what do you think Africa for Africans means, ultimately and then do the same for Europe for Europeans?
  
  No it doesn't. One is about kicking out colonial rule, and the other is about kicking out migrants.

You've viewed 25 comments.