DIAMNIADIO, SENEGAL – Mali and Niger’s foreign ministers accused neighboring countries of sheltering and funding jihadists on April 21, while cracking open doors to limited ECOWAS cooperation despite their AES bloc’s formal split, exposing Sahel divisions stalling anti-terror campaigns.
At a Senegal security forum, Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop alleged unnamed neighbors host terrorist groups and “hostile forces” launching cross-border raids, implicating external players like Ukrainian mercenaries tied to 2024 northern Mali clashes, which Kyiv denied, involving drone supplies to rebels. Recent Mali-Mauritania friction escalated over disputed soldier detentions.
Niger’s Bakary Yaou Sangare charged counterterrorism partners, specifically France, with simultaneously fueling violence, echoing junta leader Abdourahamane Tiani’s unproven January claims pinning an airport attack on Paris, Benin, and Ivory Coast presidents. The trio, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, face decade-plus insurgencies under post-coup juntas that ditched ECOWAS for the Alliance of Sahel States.
ECOWAS chief Julius Maada Bio urged AES reintegration or tighter ties, but Diop declared withdrawal “final,” though he offered talks on free movement and markets. The standoff hampers jihadist containment across Africa’s volatile Sahel.