Burkina Faso and Mali skipped a major African military summit hosted by Nigeria, as tensions persist between junta-led Sahel nations and their regional neighbours.
Burkina Faso and Mali failed to send representatives to a continental military meeting hosted by Nigeria on Monday, amid strained ties between the junta-led Sahel nations and West African neighbours.
The summit, held in Abuja, was billed as the first high-level pan-African meeting of defence chiefs aimed at developing “homegrown solutions to Africa’s defence needs.” While Niger attended through its defence attaché Colonel Major Soumana Kalkoye, Mali and Burkina Faso — who withdrew from ECOWAS in January alongside Niger — were absent.
Nigerian Chief of Defence Staff Christopher Musa urged greater unity, saying: “True security is not achieved in isolation.”
Relations between the Sahel states and other West African countries have deteriorated since recent coups and the formation of the Alliance of Sahel States. Despite a thaw in tensions with Niger, cooperation on regional security remains weak as jihadist threats persist.