Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso signed a mutual defense agreement called the “Alliance of Sahel States” on Saturday, committing all three juntas to defend each other if any of them is attacked. The pact also requires each country to help suppress armed uprisings in the others.

All three countries are ruled by military strongmen who overthrew their elected civilian governments in recent years: Mali in 2021, Burkina Faso in 2022, and Niger in July 2023. All three are landlocked former French colonies with severe jihadi problems. All three were former members of a French-supported anti-terrorist group called the G5 Sahel Alliance, along with Chad and Mauritania.

The G5 Sahel Alliance was never officially dissolved, but it has been effectively defunct since Mali and Burkina Faso fell to coups and the Niger junta put the final nails in its coffin by canceling all counterterrorism agreements with France.

Niger gave France a tight deadline to withdraw all forces from its territory and has been vocally concerned about France joining an invasion by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to reverse the coup and put President Mohamed Bazoum back in power. The Alliance of Sahel States agreement is clearly intended to make such an invasion more difficult.

A supporter holds a T-shirt reading “France Must Go” as supporters of Niger’s National Council of Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) protest outside the Niger and French airbase in Niamey on September 2, 2023, to demand the departure of the French army from Niger (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images).

The borders of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger come together in a region known as Liptako-Gourma, which has been a hotbed of Islamist extremist violence for the past decade. Fighting in the region was one of the major reasons the G5 Sahel group was created in 2017. Mali junta leader Col. Assimi Goita referred to the new trilateral agreement on Monday as the Liptako-Gourma Charter.

“I signed today with the heads of state of Burkina Faso and Niger the Liptako-Gourma Charter, establishing the Alliance of Sahel States with the objective of establishing an architecture of collective defense and assistance mutual for the benefit of our populations,” Goita said.

Goita seated as the Presidency of the Republic of Niger welcomes the historic signing of the Liptako-Gourma Charter on September 16, 2023, in Bamako, establishing the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) (Présidence du Niger/Twitter).

“This alliance will be a combination of military and economic efforts between the three countries. Our priority is the fight against terrorism in the three countries,” Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said at a press conference on Sunday.

The agreement also stressed the importance of continuing “the heroic struggles waged by the African people and countries for political independence, human dignity and economic emancipation.”

AFP suggested Mali has the most to gain from the new alliance since it is not only worried about external military intervention and fighting jihadists, but also has an insurgency from the nomadic Tuareg people to deal with. Burkina Faso, on the other hand, will likely assume a leadership role as the most stable of the three nations.