West Africa’s political map was shaken when Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger left ECOWAS in January 2025, but the rupture has not stopped countries from pursuing cooperation outside the bloc, writes Djiby Sow, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).
Although relations between the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) remain strained, Sow argues that recent developments point to a wider regional pattern. “In August, Ghana and Burkina Faso signed a defense agreement, while Mali and Côte d’Ivoire agreed to delimit their shared border,” the researcher wrote.
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Along several of the dividing lines between ECOWAS and the AES, Sow observes that “states are reactivating or deepening bilateral cooperation frameworks, agreements, joint commissions, or operational mechanisms, some of which predate the current regional crisis”.
