This article appears in the May 2, 2025 issue of Executive Intelligence Review.
Africa’s Revolution: Alliance of Sahel States Boosts the Tempo
[Print version of this article]
April 23—A revolution is underway in Africa to break the bonds of neocolonialism and industrialize the continent. It has been slowly picking up momentum for more than a generation. Now a new sense of freedom and possibility is unmistakable.
In 2015, the African Union Assembly of Heads of State adopted a grand design for Africa’s next fifty years called “Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want,” of which its plan for an African Integrated High-Speed Rail Network (AIHSRN) is emblematic of the whole.[fn_1]
Agenda 2063 did not come out of the blue, but was nurtured in the environment of several wholesome processes aimed at economic integration of the entire continent to promote rapid economic and technological development.
While ignored and even undermined by the G7 and the European Union, Africa’s revolutionary process received strong support from China through the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC, begun in 2000); the birth of the BRICS in 2009 and its subsequent growth; China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) begun in 2013; the first and second meetings of the Russia-Africa Summit (2019, 2023); and the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum (first ministerial meeting in 2024).
Today, Africa’s full members of the BRICS are South Africa, Ethiopia, and Egypt. Africa’s partner members are Nigeria and Uganda. And the BRICS bank—headquartered in China and called the New Development Bank—established the first of its four regional offices in South Africa.
These collaborative processes sparked the new sense of freedom and possibility on the African continent.
The effort has been slowed by the lack of strong unity among the states, which allows the institutions of the Washington Consensus—led by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank through their destructive “structural adjustment programs”—to pick off individual countries that lack the power to oppose them. That is why the Pan-African movement has made no headway since the days of Ghana’s founding President, Kwame Nkrumah, and later, the revolutionary leadership of Burkina Faso’s Thomas Sankara.
The famous Senegalese physicist, historian, and political leader, Cheikh Anta Diop, always asserted that Africa could only achieve independence and resist the power of its former colonizers through becoming a true federation of its many states.
In a 1977 interview, Diop said that the only independent countries on the planet were the United States, the Soviet Union, and China, because they were continental powers. When asked how can Africa become a federation, given the weakness of the then Organization of African Unity (predecessor of the African Union), he said,
To begin with, a group of states could already band together in an open federation and actively incite the other states to join. I understand that this is more easily said than done, but a start has to be made somehow, somewhere. I see no other way for such a state than in one, two or three states taking the initiative of surrendering a good part of their own national sovereignty and accepting to be the initial nucleus of an open federation. This demands courage, a lot of courage, political foresight and, above all, a deep, profound commitment to Africa as a historical, cultural, and political entity.[fn_2]
It appears that this process is now beginning with the formation of the Alliance of Sahel States.
The Alliance of Sahel States
The revolutionary process that led to Agenda 2063 moved to another level when Mali’s army carried out a coup in May 2021. Burkina Faso’s army followed with a coup in January 2022, and Niger’s in July 2023. The three governments soon formed a confederation, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), which is already making provision for possible additional members. Shining brightly among the guiding lights for these revolutionary governments are Diop and Sankara, both mentioned above. Diop mapped out the industrialization of the continent in a little book called Black Africa: The Economic and Cultural Basis for a Federated State (1974), and Sankara was exemplary as the selfless and visionary President of Burkina Faso from 1983 until his assassination in 1987. The AES is already winning admiration across Africa.
The three revolutionary governments have now obtained support from the Russian Federation. The foreign ministers of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger arrived in Moscow “to address the profound aspirations of AES peoples” in the first AES-Russia consultation over April 3-4, 2025 at the invitation of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
In this consultation, Russia said it would train AES troops and law enforcement personnel and supply them with military equipment to fight the prevalent Islamist terrorism, without imposing conditions on the Alliance. According to the AES, Russia will also play a role in the introduction of an AES currency. In an April 11 RT interview with Niger’s Foreign Minister, Yaou Sangaré Bakary, the minister said the AES would introduce its own currency and ditch the CFA franc and UEMOA (the West African Economic and Monetary Union), both tightly controlled by France. He said it would not happen immediately, but “Russia will occupy an important place in the introduction of our currency.” Tasks such as this, he said, will be easier now that the AES has kicked out the French and U.S. military forces—that was the most difficult.
Bakary’s short but quietly powerful interview with RT will doubtless have an impact across Africa. “We know our sovereignty begins with the printing of money,” he said, and “you can’t be AES and accept that the printing press is in France.” “Most of us [cabinet ministers] are over sixty. We are not doing this for ourselves. We are doing it for our children.”
The Alliance, Its Ripples, Its Parallels
The momentum of the AES is producing a variety of ripple effects across the continent. And there is independent, parallel motion. The following brief accounts report only a few developments in the AES and a small number of other countries, chiefly from the first three weeks of April. On the larger canvas, there are many more.
AES. The Alliance of Sahel States (AES) of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger announced March 13 the formation of its investment bank, the Sahel Confederation of States Investment and Development Bank, with an initial capital of 500 billion CFA francs ($860 million).
The AES air force chiefs met at Mali’s Military College April 19 with a view to forming a joint air force. In February and March, the chiefs of staff of the three countries’ militaries had also met, and two joint anti-terrorist operations have now been carried out. From February 24 to March 6, they conducted large-scale patrols “to regain control in unsafe areas, protect the local population and destroy the operational potential of terrorist groups,” according to Pravda Mali March 7. Pravda Mali reports many AES developments.
Burkina Faso. Two years ago, head of state Ibrahim Traoré said, “Soon the factories will rise.” In January 2025, the first tomato processing plant began operations. In February, Burkina Faso produced its first gold bar, refined from its own gold ore. The government plans to increase cotton production to 550,000 tons by 2025-2026, an increase of 83%. To achieve this goal, abandoned lands will be restored, 5 billion CFA francs will be budgeted for farmers’ subsidies, and 346,778 hectares will be allocated for cotton with an expected yield of 865 kilograms per hectare. Traoré announced April 21 that all education, up to and including university, will be free for all citizens.
Mali. Mali seeks to increase rice production by more than 80% by 2030, from the current 3 million tons to 5.5 million tons, APA News reported April 21. Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maïga appealed for the necessary investments from national and international partners on April 17, when he chaired the National Forum on Sustainable Financing under the sponsorship of the National Program for the Intensive Rice System (PN-SRI), in Bamako. While Sahel governments have been working toward food self-sufficiency, Mali still has to import some of its rice, a staple food in much of West Africa and the Sahel.
Nigeria. Nigeria, the immediate neighbor of Niger which had threatened it, has reversed itself and now seeks peace and cooperation, as reported by Arise.TV (Nigeria) on April 17. After the coup in Niger in July 2023, Nigeria had led ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West African States) in imposing sanctions on Niger and attempted to organize an invasion to depose the revolutionary government. But on April 16, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, arrived in Niamey, the capital of Niger, at the head of a delegation of senior diplomats, policy advisors, and defense liaison officers, to restore and strengthen relations between Nigeria and Niger. The Nigerian delegation brought a message for General Abdourahamane Tchiani, the head of state of Niger, from Nigerian President Bola Tinubu. Discussions covered mutual security, trade, economic development, and building the trans-Sahel railway.
Nigeria has meanwhile developed its own indigenous attack drone, according to Africa Today (YouTube), April 17. African governments in need of military hardware to fight terrorism have found themselves at the mercy of the vendor or the vendor’s government. Timely delivery has been a problem for Nigeria when it has been facing the destructive Boko Haram or other terrorist networks.
Sudan. The government of Sudan formalized cooperation with Niger and Mali in June 2024. Deputy Commander of the Sudanese Armed Forces General Shams al-Din Kabbashi, and Niger’s head of state, Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani, met in Niamey, the capital of Niger, June 7, 2024 and agreed to work on common positions to be taken in meetings of regional and international organizations. Gen. Tchiani hoped that stability could be restored soon in Sudan and expressed Niger’s readiness to cooperate with Khartoum in addressing common difficulties. Gen. Kabbashi flew on to Mali, where he met with the President, General Assimi Goïta. The two agreed to establish cooperation in the political, economic, and cultural fields, and signed MOUs between their respective ministries of defense and foreign affairs. They also considered cooperation between Sudan and other Sahel countries in the security field and in coordinating positions in regional and international organizations.
Tanzania. The President of Tanzania, Samia Suluhu Hassan, on April 17 sent her predecessor, former Tanzanian President Dr. Jakaya Kikwete, as her special envoy to the Burkina Faso capital, Ouagadougou, to meet head of state Captain Ibrahim Traoré and his associates. Dr. Kikwete and his team came with a proposal for partnership and deep cooperation. He spoke of cooperation in agriculture, mining, education, health, manufacturing, and military affairs. One of the first proposed steps in this cooperation is in cardiology. The Tanzanian Heart Institute is a leader in cardiology in Africa, and Tanzania proposes cooperation with, and training for, Burkinabe surgeons.
Ghana. Ghana has ordered all foreign nationals to cease artisanal gold trading by April 30. “This directive is part of the enforcement of the newly enacted Ghana Gold Board Act, which aims to reform gold sourcing, boost revenue, and curb smuggling,” according to the New Africa Channel (YouTube) April 16. The Act was signed into law by Ghana’s new President, John Dramani Mahama, on April 2.
DR Congo. The Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Judith Suminwa, has called for a “patriotic action plan” to control mining. During a three-day national dialogue April 15 to 17, she endorsed the initiative of a civil society organization, the Crisis Committee for Peace and Security, to reform the role of government in the mining sector. She charged the organization to come up with “a concrete, rigorous, ambitious, and patriotic action plan,” saying, “Mining governance cannot remain the domain of technocrats and cabinet experts. It must return to being a subject of public debate, a lived social issue, and a political priority.” She said the war in eastern Congo “stems from an insatiable appetite for our coltan, gold, copper, cobalt, and other minerals,” according to copperbeltkatangamining.com.
Suminwa was briefly the Minister of Planning before being appointed prime minister in June 2024.
Uganda. President Yoweri Museveni reaffirmed his prohibition of any export of unprocessed minerals, including iron ore, when he opened the Eighth African Leadership Forum April 7 in Kampala. In his speech, broadcast on CTV Uganda, he said, “I have banned all the export of unprocessed minerals from here.” Adding, rhetorically, “Let them stay in the ground. When the grandchildren come, they will get them out.” The prohibition goes back to 2015, but Uganda’s trade data show that it could only be applied imperfectly. Museveni is working toward a fuller implementation of his prohibition, as shown by the commissioning ceremony of the Abyssinia Group of Industries’ new steel mill in Jinja in January, where Museveni also spoke and emphasized the need for Ugandans to process the country’s raw materials in such manufacturing facilities as this new steel mill.
All across the African continent, there is a rising awareness that industrialization is uniquely capable of building the power needed to make African sovereignty a reality. At this moment, the Alliance of Sahel States and its policies, including its federative principle, are recognized by many African leaders—far more than the few enumerated here—as providing leadership and a powerful beacon of hope for the continent.
[fn_1] EIR will soon publish a full article on Agenda 2063. It was described in “Extending the New Silk Road to West Asia and Africa” in EIR, November 17, 2017, on pages 44-46. [back to text for fn_1]
[fn_2] The interview was published in Afriscope in February 1977 and reprinted as an appendix in the Expanded Edition of Cheikh Anta Diop, Black Africa: The Economic and Cultural Basis for a Federated State (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, and Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1987). [back to text for fn_2]
