TOWARDS AN AES MULTINATIONAL JOINTTASK FORCE

WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT? The security situation in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger remains worrying due to persistent terrorist attacks. On September 16, 2023, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger formalized the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) by signing the Liptako-Gourma Charter. These countries recently decided to leave ECOWAS, highlighting the security challenges they face. Meeting in Niamey on Wednesday, March 06, 2024, the Chiefs of Defence Staff of the three countries announced the creation of a Joint Military Force of the AES countries, "which should be operational as soon as possible to take into account the security challenges in our area", said General Barmou, Chief of Staff of the Nigerien armed forces. BACKGROUND The Joint Task Force initiative is presented by Ouagadougou, Bamako and Niamey as a "sovereign" tool aimed at creating the conditions for shared security in these three countries, which are experiencing an unprecedented multidimensional crisis. He also announced that the three countries had succeeded in drawing up an operational concept "that will make it possible to achieve defense and security objectives” throughout all of AES’s territory.