West African Junta States to Launch New Passport

Three West African countries, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, run by military juntas will be launching new biometric passports as part of their withdrawal from the wider regional bloc Ecowas.

The three countries whose military leaders took over power in a series of coups between 2020 and 2023, announced their plan to leave the ECOWAS bloc in January. Following the coups, they formed the Alliance of Sahel States to boost military cooperation. In July they formed a confederation to broaden the nature of their work together beyond security.

It remains unclear how the new passports will affect the travel of their nationals to other Ecowas states where they enjoyed visa-free movement as holders of a 15-nation regional passport.

Their leaders criticised Western powers, especially former colonial ruler France, for their role in the insecurity and their economic hand in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. They all expelled French soldiers who were there as part of an anti-jihadist mission.

“In the coming days, a new biometric passport of the [alliance] will be put into circulation with the aim of harmonising travel documents in our common area,” Malian leader Col Assimi Goïta said in a televised address on late on Sunday.

Goïta, who is the acting president of the Sahel alliance, said they were also planning to launch a joint service that would promote a “harmonious dissemination of information in our three states”.

The three nations said they wanted to build a community of sovereign peoples based on African values and far from the control of foreign powers.