The military juntas governing Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have formalized their break from Western-backed regional institutions by establishing the Alliance of Sahel States and deploying a joint military battalion against armed groups. The three countries, all ruled by officers who seized power through coups between 2020 and 2023, announced their withdrawal from the Economic Community of West African States earlier in 2024 and have since moved to create parallel security structures (Al Jazeera). The joint battalion represents the most concrete step yet toward military cooperation between the three regimes. It marks a decisive pivot away from the French and American security partnerships that defined Sahelian counterterrorism operations for over a decade.
The Alliance of Sahel States comes at a moment when all three countries face worsening insurgencies and deepening institutional decay. Civilian governance has been suspended indefinitely, with promised transitions to democratic rule repeatedly delayed or abandoned outright (HRW). The juntas have framed their alliance as a sovereign response to what they describe as the failure of Western intervention, but critics argue the pact serves primarily to shield military rulers from external pressure to restore civilian government.
Alliance of Sahel States
The AES was formally established in September 2023 as a mutual defense pact, with the three junta leaders pledging to come to each other’s aid in the event of armed aggression. By December 2025, the alliance has evolved into a broader political and economic framework, with plans for shared infrastructure, a joint investment bank, and coordinated diplomatic positions at international forums (Al Jazeera). The three countries completed their exit from ECOWAS, rejecting decades of regional integration in favor of a smaller bloc built around military solidarity.
The joint battalion launched under the AES banner is tasked with conducting cross-border operations against jihadist groups operating in the tri-border area where Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger converge. This zone has long been the most active theater for attacks by the al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. Previous multilateral forces, including the French-backed G5 Sahel, collapsed after coups disrupted the political consensus that sustained them. Whether the new joint battalion can succeed where its predecessors failed remains an open question, particularly given the limited resources and intelligence capabilities available to the three governments.
Security Crisis
The security situation across the Sahel has deteriorated sharply throughout 2025. Jihadist armed groups have expanded their territorial reach, launching attacks further south into coastal West African states including Togo, Benin and Ghana (Insurgency Report). In Burkina Faso alone, armed groups control or contest roughly 40 percent of national territory, with entire provinces effectively beyond government reach. The Malian army, even bolstered by Russian Africa Corps mercenaries, has struggled to hold recaptured towns in the north following the fall of Kidal.
Intercommunal violence has compounded the jihadist threat, with ethnic militias clashing over land, water and cattle routes across the region. Civilian casualties reached new highs in 2025, and humanitarian agencies report that access to vulnerable populations has been severely restricted by both armed groups and government forces (HRW). The collapse of state services in rural areas has created conditions in which armed groups present themselves as alternative providers of justice and order, further entrenching their influence among local populations.
Russia and China Influence
Russia has emerged as the primary external security partner for all three Sahel juntas, filling the vacuum left by the departure of French and American forces. Russian Africa Corps personnel, the successor to the Wagner Group, are deployed in Mali and Burkina Faso, providing training, equipment and direct combat support in exchange for mining concessions and diplomatic alignment (Al Jazeera). Niger signed a military cooperation agreement with Moscow in 2024, and Russian instructors arrived in the capital Niamey shortly afterward.
China has pursued a parallel but distinct strategy, focusing on infrastructure investment, telecommunications and diplomatic support at the United Nations Security Council. Beijing has offered loans and development packages that come without the governance conditions attached to Western aid, making them attractive to regimes seeking to consolidate power without external oversight (Insurgency Report). The combined effect of Russian military support and Chinese economic engagement has provided the Sahel juntas with a credible alternative to the Western partnerships they abandoned, fundamentally reshaping the geopolitical landscape of the region.
Human Rights
The consolidation of military rule has been accompanied by a systematic crackdown on civil liberties across all three countries. Independent media outlets have been shut down or placed under censorship, political opponents detained without trial, and civil society organizations restricted or banned (HRW). In Mali, journalists reporting on military operations or civilian casualties face arrest and prosecution under broadly defined national security laws. Burkina Faso’s junta has conscripted civilians into auxiliary militias, exposing untrained fighters to frontline combat with minimal oversight.
The military rulers of the Sahel have used the security crisis as a blank check to crush dissent, silence the press, and rule by decree. Civilians are caught between jihadist violence and state repression with no protection from either side.
Niger’s ruling junta dissolved the country’s constitutional court and suspended key provisions of the constitution shortly after taking power, moves that remain in effect as of December 2025. Across the three countries, the promise of eventual elections has been used to buy time while institutional frameworks are dismantled (HRW). International human rights organizations have documented extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and the use of torture by security forces in counterterrorism operations. Accountability for these abuses remains virtually nonexistent under military governance.
The trajectory of the Sahel points toward deeper fragmentation and prolonged instability. The Alliance of Sahel States has given the juntas a collective shield against regional and international pressure, but it has not produced a viable strategy for defeating the insurgencies that justified military rule in the first place. With democratic governance suspended, Western influence receding, and Russia and China filling the void on their own terms, the Sahel’s 70 million residents face an uncertain future defined by competing armed actors and shrinking political space. Whether the joint battalion and new alliances translate into genuine security gains or simply entrench authoritarian rule will be the defining question for the region heading into 2026.