ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Three West African nations led by military juntas met this week to strengthen a newly formed alliance described by some analysts on Friday as an attempt to legitimize their military governments amid coup-related sanctions and strained relations with neighbors.
In his first foreign trip since the July coup that brought him into power, Niger’s junta leader, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani held separate meetings Thursday with his Mali and Burkina Faso counterparts.
During their meetings, the leaders pledged security and political collaborations under the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a partnership the three countries announced in September as a measure to help fight the extremist violence they each struggle with and across the Sahel, the vast arid expanse south of the Sahara Desert.
The alliance provides a “path of sovereignty” for the countries and for their citizens, Gen. Tchiani told reporters after his meeting with Malian leader Col. Assimi Goita. “Through this alliance, the peoples of the Sahel affirm that … nothing will prevent them from the objective of making this area of the Sahel, not an area of insecurity, but an area of prosperity,” Tchiani said.
In reality, though, the partnership “is in part an effort to entrench and legitimize (their) military governments” more than to tackle the violent extremism which they have limited capacity to fight, said Nate Allen, an…
