بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Answer to Question
The Mali-Niger-Burkina Faso Tripartite Union
(Translated)
Question:
On Saturday, 6 July 2024, the leaders of the military juntas of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali announced at a summit in Niamey, the capital of Niger, that they had signed a confederation agreement. Is there an international force behind this announcement? If so, who is the country to which they show their loyalty? Or is this confederation established on their own accord? Thank you very much.
Answer:
To clarify the answer, we review the following matters:
1- These three countries, after the coups that took place in them between 2020-2023, have become loyal to America and obey its command! We explained it in the answers to the questions: 1/9/2020 regarding the Malian coup led by Assimi Goita, 7/2/2023 regarding the Burkina Faso coup led by Ibrahim Traoré, and 15/8/2023 regarding the Niger coup led by Abderrahmane Tchiani... and the three regions are Islamic countries:
a- As for Mali: it is an Islamic country. Islam reached it in the eleventh century, and the dominant religion in Mali is still Islam. About 90% of Malians are Muslims, about 5% are Christians, and about 5% are other religions... and the capital is Bamako.
b- As for Burkina Faso: it is a country in West Africa, and it is an Islamic country. According to the 2006 census, more than 60.5% of its population are Muslims, and about 23% are Christians, and then other traditions. Its area is 274,200 km2, its population is 21,510,181 people, and it depends on agriculture for its economy. The city of Ouagadougou is considered the most important city in the country and is the capital.
c- As for Niger: it is located in West Africa and was given the name Niger in reference to the Niger River that runs through its territory. It is bordered to the south by Nigeria and Benin, to the west by Burkina Faso and Mali, to the north by Algeria and Libya, while it is bordered by Chad to the east. Niger's total area is about 1,270,000 square km. Niger is an Islamic country. Islam is the religion of the vast majority in Niger, amounting to more than 99.3%. Islam spread into what is now Niger in the 15th century through the expansion of both the Songhai Sultanate in the west and the influence of trans-Saharan trade from the Maghreb and Egypt. The capital is Niamey.
Thus, the coups that took place in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso between 2020 and 2023 were pro-American and supported by it.
2- On 16/9/2023, the three countries established the “Coalition of Sahel States” in order to create a joint defense force against the potential threat of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) military intervention in Niger: (The Malian president, Colonel Assimi Goita, and the Nigerian president, General Abderrahmane Tchiani And the Burkinabe, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, had signed, in September 2023, a charter, about which the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mali, Abdullah Diop, said in a statement at the time: “It will be a combination of military and economic efforts between the three countries”.
The joint charter signed by the leaders of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, on 16/9/2023, stipulates the formation of the “Coalition of Sahel States.” The charter establishing the coalition consists of 17 articles, the first article stipulates that it will be called the Liptako-Gourma Charter, and that “the contracting parties agreed among themselves to establish the Alliance of Sahel States, abbreviated as “AES”. While the second article stipulates that the goal of this charter is “establishing an architecture of collective defense and mutual support.” The founding charter also stipulates in its Article 6: “Any attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of one or more contracted parties will be considered an aggression against the other parties, which entails an obligation to mutual assistance, including the use of armed force to restore security.” Article 11 of the Charter stipulates: “The alliance is open to the membership of any other State that shares the same geographical, political and socio-cultural realities and accepts the goals of the alliance.” (Al Jazeera Center for Studies 25/6/2024).
It is clear from Articles 6 and 11 of this alliance formed by these three countries that the purpose of its establishment is to confront possible foreign military intervention, especially French, through the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and to stand militarily with one of them in the event that it is subjected to a French external military strike. The other goal is to create a division within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), as understood from the eleven articles, and to encourage the countries falling under this group to join this alliance.
3- On 6/7/2024, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso announced the establishment of a confederation. The confederation agreement signed between these three countries on 6/7/2024 in Niamey, the capital of Niger, complements the Sahel Alliance agreement signed at the first meeting. (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, located in the African Sahel region, announced today, Saturday, their unification within a “confederation.” The three countries said, in a final statement during their first summit on Saturday in the Nigerien capital, Niamey, that their presidents “decided to cross an additional stage towards a deeper integration between Member States. For this purpose, they adopted a treaty establishing a confederation between Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger under the name of the Confederation of Sahel States. (UAE’s Al-Ittihad 6/7/2024).
4- Despite the absence of direct American statements, all indicators show that America is behind the establishment of these countries of the “Confederation of Sahel States” and that, “on the one hand, it wants it to be a fortress that protects its agents in these countries from the sanctions of the ECOWAS group, especially since the three countries are landlocked and lack any access to the sea, hindering their trade. And on the other hand, it wants this to be a counter alliance to ECOWAS, which is controlled by France and Britain. Indeed, the establishment of the confederation created a storm of criticism for it within the ECOWAS group, and it began to demand reform, and this was evident in the statements of the Senegalese president, meaning that the transfer of countries from ECOWAS towards the “confederation.” became possible.
5- Therefore, this confederation is not spontaneous, but was created by America between these three countries loyal to it in order to preserve its colonies and to prevent the intervention of Europe, especially France, and the return to its colonies. The steps that these countries took before the union confirm this, including:
A- Burkina Faso and Niger announced their withdrawal from the G5 Sahel task force in November 2023. Mali also withdrew from the G5 Sahel task force in May 2022. (Burkina Faso and Niger announced, on Saturday, their withdrawal from the G5 Sahel group, a year and a half after Mali’s withdrawal from the African group. According to a joint statement by the governments of Burkina Faso and Niger, published by the official Burkina Faso news agency, “the decision is sovereign, and comes after an in-depth evaluation of the group and its work.” The statement added: “The G5 in the Sahel cannot serve foreign interests at the expense of the interests of the peoples of the Sahel, let alone accept the dictates of any force, whatever it may be, in the name of a misleading and childish partnership that denies the right to sovereignty of our peoples and countries. Therefore, Burkina Faso and Niger have clearly shouldered the historical responsibility of withdrawing from this organization...” (Anadolu Agency, 3/12/2023). (The military junta in Mali announced in a statement on Sunday, the country’s withdrawal from a multinational military force in the Sahel region of West Africa, which was formed to fight jihadists in 2014. The military junta justified the withdrawal decision by not allowing Mali to chair the G5 Sahel group, as Bamako was supposed to host in February 2022 a conference of the leaders of this group. The countries, namely Mauritania, Chad, Burkina Faso and Niger, under the pretext of internal instability in Mali, which witnessed a military coup in which the military junta seized power. (France 24, 16/5/2022).
B- Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso announced their withdrawal from ECOWAS in January 2024 in order to get rid of France’s influence and not allow it to intervene militarily under the pretext of combating terrorism. (Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger decided, on Sunday, to withdraw from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). This was stated in a joint statement issued by the three Sahel countries, which are led by military juntas and interim transitional governments. The statement stated that the three countries will withdraw from ECOWAS which consists of 15 members “as soon as possible.” it added that ECOWAS, which is accused of “being subjected to the influence of foreign powers” and “betraying its principles”, constitutes a “threat” to the three countries... (Anadolu Agency, 28/1/2024)
6- All this indicates that these three countries have withdrawn from all organizations subject to the influence and direction of France in order to get rid of French influence. It is unlikely that these countries would withdraw on their own without American support, or even an American order, as a prelude to the establishment of the confederation that America wanted to tear apart ECOWAS or weaken it and then shake or replace French influence in those three important countries whose total population exceeds 70 million people and which have influential resources for energy and minerals, which were exploited by French companies! This “confederation” and the tone of its leaders threaten to remove more countries from the French sphere of influence in the Sahel region, and these are very fragile governments due to French colonial plunder and the extreme poverty it left behind and due to the severity of the rampant corruption among the rulers, and these new circumstances tempt the military who are in contact with America through calls for “fighting terrorism” and military training and support. In general, it can be said that the intransigence of the leaders of the three countries against France is considered the greatest threat facing France’s influence after it had been safe and stable for decades.
7- Thus, it becomes clear that the rulers of Islamic countries transfer the country’s dependence from one colonizer to another, so they turn their backs on France, which plundered the Muslims’ wealth, and turn to America to also plunder those goods, while the Muslims remain in distress and poverty, as if the Muslims are incapable of ruling their country. If this situation includes all Muslim countries, yet in African countries, it is more intense and deeper, and the more Muslims become aware of their Deen and the more certain they are that adhering to it is the path to their salvation in this world and the hereafter, the Muslims become closer to what pleases Allah (swt), and their hatred for the kuffar colonialist who plundered and plunders the resources of their country, increases, leaving them suffering from poverty and destitution, and increasing the determination and work of Muslims to establish their Deen and resume their Islamic life through the establishment of the Islamic state that unites Muslims, the second Khilafah Rashidah (rightly guided Caliphate) State on the method of the Prophethood, after this oppressive rule in which Muslims live. We are reassured, Allah willing, when we see that Muslims have had enough, and they are now one step away from building the Islamic state, unifying the Islamic countries, and expelling all the kaffir colonial countries from their countries, and even bringing guidance to those countries, that is not difficult to Allah to accomplish. He (saw) says in the Hadith narrated by Ahmad on the authority of Hudhayfah, may Allah be pleased with him:
«...ثُمَّ تَكُونُ مُلْكاً جَبْرِيَّةً فَتَكُونُ مَا شَاءَ اللهُ أَنْ تَكُونَ ثُمَّ يَرْفَعُهَا إِذَا شَاءَ أَنْ يَرْفَعَهَا ثُمَّ تَكُونُ خِلَافَةً عَلَى مِنْهَاجِ النُّبُوَّةِ ثُمَّ سَكَتَ»
“…then there will be oppressive rule (ملكًا جبرية) for as long as Allah wills, then he will remove it when He wills, and then there will be Khilafah upon the Prophetic method.’ Then he (saw) was silent.”
18 Muharram Al Haram 1446 AH
24/7/2024 CE