By Michael Kramer
February 25, 2026

The Alliance of Sahel States — Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger — comprises former French colonies.

These countries are moving forward in forming a political confederation. For example, there is now one passport for all citizens of the three countries, or one ID card. They’ve already formed a military unit of soldiers from the three countries.

It really is an alliance that is moving forward within the last stage of decolonization of Africa with ongoing progressive economic and political developments.

In the 1950s and 60s, countries won formal independence from European colonizers but were still being dominated by neo-colonialism, that is imperialism. But the Alliance is changing these dynamics.

But as you can expect, the Alliance is under attack. At the beginning of June, there was an attempted coup financed by France against the leadership of Burkina Faso, Captain Ibrahim Traoré.

Burkina Faso’s intelligence network nipped this attempt in the bud. The network traced the funding of the coup attempt to the Ivory Coast and France.

Mali is a landlocked country (all three of the countries are landlocked), having to rely on fuel transported by trucks.

At the beginning of November, these trucks were ambushed by “jihadists” financed by French imperialism. No fuel was getting through to the capital of Bamako. But the defiant Malian people organized truck convoys to Bamako.

These are heroic truck drivers. When you are driving a truckload of gasoline under the threat of being ambushed, it is serious business. These drivers were escorted by the Malian Army, and for the most part, that fuel blockade — similar to the fuel blockade of Cuba — was stopped.

In Niger just a few weeks ago, there was a very serious terrorist attack on the international airport and on an adjacent military base that was soundly defeated by the Nigerien Army.

There used to be a big U.S. base located in Niger. That base closed, and there are now advisors from the Russian Federation, who helped to stop the attack. It was a very serious incident. Niger traced the money that funded the attack back to France.

Recently, 200 U.S. Special Forces personnel from AFRICOM were deployed to Nigeria, which borders the southern part of Niger.

These presidents — Ibrahim Traoré in Burkina Faso, Assimi Goïta in Mali and Abdourahamane Tchiani in Niger — should be recognized by the global movement for being in the forefront of the struggle to liberate the African continent from over 600 years of colonialism and imperialism.