Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger signed a charter on Saturday establishing the confederation of the Alliance of Sahel States, a Sputnik correspondent reported.
The three leaders — Colonel Assimi Goita of Mali, Captain Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso, and General Abdourahamane Tiani of Niger — also established an investment bank and a stabilization fund for the confederation.
All three of them met in Niamey on Saturday at the inaugural summit of the heads of state and governments of the AES, aimed at addressing shared challenges and developing coordinated regional solutions.
During the event, Goita was appointed as the AES president for a one-year term. He expressed his firm determination to transform the alliance into a model of regional cooperation, solidarity, and development, as well as a model of sub-regional integration, in accordance with the principles of the Liptako-Gourma Charter.
Aside from that, Niger’s leader reportedly said on Saturday that people of the AES have "irrevocably turned away from ECOWAS." He further called for turning the bloc into "an alternative to any sham regional organization by creating a sovereign community of peoples not under the domination of foreign powers."
On January 28, the AES states announced their withdrawal from ECOWAS, citing the organization's ineffectiveness in combating terrorism. They also called the bloc a "threat" to its member states and slammed it for imposing "illegal, illegitimate, inhumane, and irresponsible" sanctions on the three countries after the military took power in them.