Senegal has joined a growing host of African nations that have sent high-level delegations to the countries of the Confederation of Sahel States (AES) to further political, economic and security cooperation, in the face of the Western narrative that these states are isolated and on the verge of collapse.
On May 16, Senegal’s Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko led a delegation on a 48-hour working visit to Ouagadougou, where he was received by Burkina Faso’s transitional President, Capt. Ibrahim Traoré, for high-level talks focused on security challenges and bilateral cooperation.
Traoré had recently returned from an official visit to Russia where he attended the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe and Russia, where Russian President Vladimir Putin received him.
During Sonko’s audience with Traoré, Sonko conveyed, and reiterated at a press conference, a strong message of solidarity and support from Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and the Senegalese people to the government and people of Burkina Faso. “We came to deliver a message of unwavering support to President Traoré, his government, and the people of Burkina Faso in their fight against the terrorism that has been imposed upon them,” Sonko declared.
Sonko made his visit at the invitation of Burkina Faso Prime Minister Jean-Emmanuel Ouédraogo to hold high-level talks, and attend the ceremony to mark the completion of a mausoleum of the late President Thomas Sankara, a national hero, assassinated in 1987.
This is Sonko’s second visit to a member state of the Confederation of Sahel States. Last October visited Mali, and will soon likely make a visit to Niger the third member state.
The three AES member states withdrew from the Economic Cooperation Organization of West African States (ECOWAS) after that organization threatened military action against Niger. That threat has since been withdrawn, as ECOWAS member states reach out to the Confederation. Senegal joins other ECOWAS member states, Ghana, Guinea,and Togo in seeking cooperation with the AES.
