Name: Alliance of Sahel States vs ECOWAS: West Africa’s battle for power
Uploaded: 2025-12-25T07:48:36.374Z
Duration: 2 min 45 s
Description: Sahel’s military alliance meets in Mali, challenging ECOWAS in a battle for legitimacy and reshaping West Africa’s future.

Sahel’s military alliance meets in Mali, challenging ECOWAS in a battle for legitimacy and reshaping West Africa’s future.

Bamako

The Alliance of Sahel States, led by military rulers, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), composed of mostly democratically elected leaders, are locked in a struggle for influence in West Africa. The split emerged after a series of coups in Sahel countries, with the new military leaders criticizing ECOWAS for corruption and lack of effectiveness.

The Sahel Alliance, backed by Russia, has formed a joint defense force, while ECOWAS, supported by Western nations, maintains a mandate for intervention that is rarely enforced. The rivalry has led to a crisis of legitimacy in the region, with armed groups exploiting the division and millions of West Africans migrating within the region in search of better opportunities.

Alliance of Sahel States vs ECOWAS: West Africa’s battle for power

On one side is the Alliance of Sahel States, on the other, the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS. Men in uniform who seized power versus men in suits, although democratically elected, many rewriting their constitutions to remain in office. The youngest face on either side, Captain Ibrahim Traore, the 39-year-old who led a coup in Burkina Faso. Compare that to Alassane Ouattara, IRECOS's 83-year-old president, 14 years in power, and recent winner of another five-year term. Once they were a unified bloc, now they are split. The break came after young soldiers toppled elected officials they saw as out of touch. For them, democracy has delivered corruption, and elections have robbed people of their voices. At the summit of the Alliance of Sahel States, the young captain took leadership of the bloc and redrew the enemy, not al-Qaeda or ISIL, his African neighbors, regarded as the enemy within. Why are we trying to cultivate hatred among ourselves, and through hypocrisy, calling ourselves brothers? We have only two choices. Either we put an end to imperialism once and for all, or we remain slaves until we disappear. The Sahel Alliance is a council of military rulers with a shared defense force to fight armed groups. The three landlocked nations are backed by Russia. ECOWAS is made up of 12 coastal countries supported by Western countries. It has a parliament, a mandate to intervene but it's rarely enforced. In Guinea-Bissau in November, an ECOWAS peacekeeping and stabilizing force watched the military take over. This isn't just two institutions competing against each other. It's a crisis of legitimacy, and all the while, armed groups expand, exploiting the fracture. ECOWAS has been around for as long as I can remember, even before I was born, yet what has it done? It still did not work. But ECOWAS allows free movement of goods and people. When fuel shortages hit landlocked Mali, the crisis exposed how these countries depend on each other. 90% of West African migration is not to Europe or North America, but within the region. Young people leaving their place of birth in search of work, dignity, and a means to survive. At stake, a region the size of the United States, rich in natural resources but poor in opportunities. Two visions, two paths, but one people in search of the sovereignty and dignity they were promised. Nicholas Hawke, Al Jazeera, Bamako.

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