Burkina, Mali and Niger "did well to embark on the path of global integration" by creating the Alliance of Sahel States, Russia's Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Anna Evstigneeva, said during a briefing on the activities of the UN Office for West Africa.
"It is important for ECOWAS to engage in dialogue with the three countries to address common threats in the region," Evstigneeva said.
Moreover, "the border regions of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, located in the Liptako-Gourma triangle, remain a hotbed of tension. Extremists such as the Daesh* in the Greater Sahara and al-Qaeda* are increasingly active," the Russian official said.
In addition, terrorist organizations in the Sahel are spreading their activities to the Gulf of Guinea, infecting Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, and Togo, Evstigneeva noted.
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are currently ruled by transitional military governments that came to power in the wake of the deteriorating security situation in the former French colonies. All three countries have terminated military cooperation agreements with Paris and demanded the withdrawal of French soldiers from their soil, saying that the European country's military presence in the region did not help overcome security challenges there.
*Terrorist organization outlawed in Russia and many other countries