The Three-Year-Old Junta Reality in West Africa
Developments in Africa have long been overshadowed by other conflicts abroad. During the Biden administration, still considered the pax Americana, America eased back from a number of obligations and interventions around the world, and was swallowed up by the threat of Russian advancement in Ukraine’s Donbass. This was a continuation of a decade-old war between Russia and her old satellite states under the Soviet years. The overlooked issue is that these conflicts are profoundly intertwined in many theaters of global politics; arms, diamonds, even slaves flow to some degree between today’s battlefields. From Myanmar to Colombia, warfare breaks the levees of governance and allows for these illicit trades that go further than the next bomb in an unsuspecting village. This decay of government, as a result of a multitude of forces, has long weighed on the African psyche. Particularly in the Sahel, where the demarcations of the Dar al Islam (Lands conquered by various Islamic armies over the past 1400 years) have been heavily contested, where the black, Christian population resists the expansion of imperialism from the North. This has led to decades of warfare with various Islamist militant groups, many of which are defined by their push for Sharia law and Salafi practices. This has set the stage for a considerable dependency on militaries for security, ranging from French interventions to Wagner interests proliferating on the frontiers, to domestic security forces taking up the battle. Through many coups d’etats, military rule became a political norm in many of the Sahel states, with revered leaders such as Thomas Sankara becoming emblematic of the synthesis of many political movements that defined cold-war era Africa. Leaders like him blended Marxist elements with populism and pragmatism in a way that in some cases stabilized their states. Many share a sort of nostalgia for Lumumba and Sankarist politics, whose political ideas did not die with the coups that deposed them. Rather, these coups, which were sometimes executed by particularly Western interests, became the impetus for nationalism and identity-politics in the modern context.
Many have risen to this occasion; though in the first years of the 2020s, many military leaders took the state into their own hands, and brought the previous regime to its knees. Such leaders were notably:
Burkina Faso’s Ibrahim Traore (Installed in 2022)
Gabon’s Brice Oligui (2023)
Niger’s Abdourahamane Tchiani (2023)
Sudan’s RSF leader, Hemedti (Civil war began in 2023)
Guinea’s Mamady Doumbouya (2021)
Mali’s Assimi Goiita (2021)
These leaders have redefined African politics and have caused a major shift in alliances across the continent. Their actions saw a return of power into the hands of Africa, long oppressed by European powers and Islamic terror. This came through economic and ideological warfare, and trying to use their states to prove the feasibility of a truly independent Africa in a neo-colonial world.
One of the first steps of the turn away from the west was when Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali withdrew from the Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAS) as an ideological break from the established economic partnerships in West Africa. This new block of Juntas cited “illegal, illegitimate, inhumane, and irresponsible sanctions” (Ferdjani) and ECOWAS’ failure to aid their "essential battle against terrorism and insecurity” (Ferdjani). The Alliance of Sahel States (AES) began their ideological warfare by reinforcing a common narrative for their legitimacy; “In their joint statement in January, AES also said ECOWAS had strayed from those original pan-African principles and was now under the influence of external forces” (Ferdjani). This decision to leave a regional free-trade community immediately became a spectacle of the distrust of Western economic hegemony. ECOWAS was established in 1975 with the Treaty of Lagos, which sought to empower the emerging West African markets that have always been a minute proportion of global trade relative to its large population (Ferdjani). As the AES proponent states undertook constant attacks and security threats in the Sahara’s frontiers, interests obviously shifted; however, ECOWAS was ill-equipped to handle such challenges of security. In sum, differing priorities and a nationalistic distancing from European investment and banking made the abandonment of neo-colonial holdovers like ECOWAS a necessity for the AES to shed. This decision instantly led to militaristic and economic threats by ECOWAS, which briefly attempted to rally a counter-junta joint commission to militarily intervene for the sake of returning free and fair elections. A shopkeeper in Mali told Aljazeera that ECOWAS and their tariffs “started all of this and made our lives harder” (Ferdjani).
Another revolutionary avenue was the creation of cults of personality on social media. However, these social media accounts often blend “broadsides against the West with disinformation and AI-generated videos” (Vanguard News). Social media allows the leaders of the AES to appear as heroes, and torch bearers of the previous pan-Africanists like Gaddafi and Sankara. Fahiraman Rodrigue Kone says that this allows Traore, in particular, to be “painted as the long-awaited hero capable of standing strong against the international conspiracy [emphasis mine] supposedly seeking to keep the people of Africa downtrodden” (Vanguard News). In addition to these accounts, the government of Burkina Faso has an extensive crackdown on media and civic spaces. Sadibou Marong, head of the local chapter of Reporters Without Borders, reports that “Generally speaking, the three juntas censor the media as soon as the security situation in the country is addressed in an unpleasant manner or when abuses are revealed” (Banchereau). This comes on the heels of the AES still facing considerable challenges on the battlefield as human rights violations mount on both sides; a Burkinabe reported, “In the heartlands, it’s the terrorists who sow terror. In the big cities, it’s the government that terrorises the people” (Vanguard News). This has been a continuous trend in Sahel security; the government and terror organizations both take missteps or outrightly target civilians, proliferating distrust in the countryside. The AES has also expelled American and French forces from the area and has welcomed the Wagner Group, a Russian oligarchic mercenary army entrenched in the Ukraine war and resource struggles across Africa, to assist in taking back the countryside. These initiatives, however, often fail. The extensive utilization of social media and pop culture is a tried and true method of controlling the narrative, as Traore’s instagram page displays the building of roads and public infrastructure is essentially the only media that has come to the Western public sphere. The AES states have notably cracked down on independent journalism, meaning that the scope and extent of Traore’s policies is largely unknown.
Further, finding actual perspectives within these three countries is difficult. However, on a civic level, the juntas are quite explicit about their agenda. While the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) military regimes – which openly disavow democracy and advocate for sovereignist, anti-imperialist policies – justify their continued rule by citing the need to tackle Islamist insurgencies (Ousmane), the reality for the civilian population is marked by a pervasive deterioration of security, civil liberties, and economic stability. Counter to the juntas' promise, the insurgency driven by armed Islamist groups is worsening, particularly in Burkina Faso and Mali (Ousmane), leading to a surge in civilian casualties, including the death of 3,064 civilians in the first six months of one recent year, a 25% increase over the prior half-year period (Banchereau). This crisis is compounded by the behavior of state forces, as counterterrorism operations frequently result in severe human rights violations likely amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity (Global Centre). In Mali, the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) and Russian state-controlled Africa Corps are implicated in abuses such as summary executions, torture, beheadings, and indiscriminate airstrikes (Global Centre; ADF). In Burkina Faso, state-sponsored militias, like the VDP, have been accused of grave crimes along ethnic lines (Global Centre). In Burkina Faso, authorities arrest dissidents or forcibly conscript them into anti-jihadist fighting using a "general mobilization" decree (Global Centre; Ousmane), leading to such widespread fear that residents report a chilling atmosphere where "everyone spies on and fears everyone else" (Vanguard News). Furthermore, economic life is under strain following the abandonment of ECOWAS, which has exacerbated existing inflation and high costs of basic goods in Mali (Ferdjani), alongside persistent infrastructure failures like the electricity crisis (Ferdjani). This combined atmosphere of intensifying insecurity, repression, and economic hardship has pushed over 2.5 million people to flee their homes across the Central Sahel (UNHCR). The revolutionary facade presented by the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) is underpinned by explicit political projects intended to remold society and eliminate internal dissent, most clearly seen in the efforts to create a "model militarised citizen" (Vanguard News). Capitalizing on deep-seated pan-African sentiments, the regimes advocate for a "decolonised mindset" and anti-imperialist stances (Vanguard News), yet this ideology is enforced through highly repressive measures (Global Centre). Burkina Faso actively promotes the militarization and indoctrination of its youth (Vanguard News). For instance, children aged 10 to 15 are encouraged to attend patriotic holiday camps where they receive military training while dressed in army fatigues (Vanguard News). Any young citizen enrolling at university must undergo a month-long "patriotic immersion" course, heavy on classes concerning national identity (Vanguard News). Analysts view this education drive as a deliberate attempt to create a "model militarised citizen" to "annihilate all forms of future protest" (Vanguard News). The regime exerts social control through mechanisms such as junta-founded brigades that patrol working-class districts, arresting individuals for perceived "uncivil or anti-social" behavior (Vanguard News), sometimes forcing them to perform clean-up work and subsequently filming and broadcasting the humiliation on national television (Vanguard News). Despite these restrictive conditions, life in the AES is not entirely devoid of resistance; trade unions in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea continue to organize general strikes to protest against restrictions on fundamental freedoms, the high cost of living, and political interference (Ousmane), highlighting a resilient, albeit suppressed, civil society movement attempting to hold the military rulers to account (Ousmane).
In sum, the AES is a considerable break from the West; to that end, African intellectuals and anti-colonial struggles should be welcomed. These states have very real grievances against the French and other security threats. However, the AES has been defined by unfortunate human rights abuses that make their populace pessimistic in real change. Since 2022, struggles in these nations have persisted; the iron grip of juntas still defy Western hegemony, though the means of asserting this African sovereignty is often seen as a continuation of intensely violent power struggles in West Africa. Time will only tell how the juntas evolve and change with the times, though it is not too late for another coup to place the AES in the company of all of the other failed African states.
Eli Brook
Works Cited
Africa Defense Forum (ADF). "Public 'Crisis of Confidence' Plagues Mali's Junta After Military Losses." 21 Jan. 2025.
Banchereau, Mark. "Media freedom group sounds alarm on increased security risks for local journalists in Africa's Sahel." AP News, 2025.
Ferdjani, Hannane. "Economic hardship, insecurity spike in Mali as ECOWAS exit looms." Al Jazeera, 8 Feb. 2024.
Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect. "Central Sahel (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger)." 15 July 2025.
Ousmane, Salvador. "West African juntas are undermining human rights." ROAPE, 7 Mar. 2025.
UNHCR. "Decade of Sahel conflict leaves 2.5 million people displaced." 14 Jan. 2022.
Vanguard News. "Burkinabes mute after 3 years under Captain Traore's boot." 3 Oct. 2025.