Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye was in Bamako on Tuesday for a one-day working visit – in a dual capacity, as both head of state of Senegal and current chair of Ecowas. He is scheduled to hold talks with his Malian counterpart, Assimi Goïta, just days after launching his own political party in Dakar.
Faye previously visited Bamako on 30 May, 2024 shortly after his inauguration, for an introductory meeting with Mali's Colonel Goïta – and to advocate for the return of the Alliance of Sahel States nations to Ecowas, the West African economic organisation which Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso have announced they are leaving.
His former ally and prime minister, Ousmane Sonko, visited Bamako in August of the same year.
Faye is to be received today by the head of the Malian junta, Assimi Goïta, for his first trip since being appointed president of Ecowas.
Faye was elected chairman of the Ecowas Authority at the 69th Ordinary Session held in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 19 July, succeeding Julius Maada Bio, who had held the position since June 2025.
On its social media accounts, the Senegalese presidency announced on Tuesday morning a "visit of friendship and work... at the invitation of his counterpart,".
"This visit builds upon the centuries-old ties of fraternity, shared history, and good-neighborly relations that unite the Senegalese and Malian peoples," the statement added.
Economic and military cooperation
Faye arrived in Bamako around 10am, where he was received by General Assimi Goïta for a one-on-one meeting before talks, expanded to include both countries' delegations.
The meeting would be primarily bilateral and Faye would not be accompanied by Ecowas officials, according to diplomatic sources consulted by French news agency AFP.
The agenda includes the security situation and military cooperation, as well as the issue of freight transport, according to the same sources.
The landlocked country imports a large portion of its goods through the port of Dakar, but transport has been virtually halted for several months due to jihadist attacks on the route connecting the western city of Kayes to Bamako, the corridor through which these imports pass.
Mali is also facing a critical security and economic situation due to an insurgency by armed jihadist groups and their Tuareg separatist allies.
The security crisis has deepened since 2012, fuelled notably by violence from these groups, some affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, others being criminal communal groups, as well as the Tuareg separatist movements.
In recent months, fighting in Mali has intensified following a major offensive launched in late April across the country by al-Qaeda-affiliated JNIM jihadists and separatists from the Azawad Liberation Front, an operation during which the defence minister was killed and the strategic city of Kidal was seized by the coalition.
The loss of Kidal was a humiliating blow for the junta that seized power in Bamako in 2020 on a promise to restore Mali's territorial integrity.
This crisis has been compounded by a severe economic downturn.
Mali's future in the region
According to Pape Ibrahima Kane, an expert on geopolitical affairs, this could lead to a rapprochement between Ecowas and the AES (Alliance of Sahel States).
"Trust must be restored between Ecowas and the AES," he told RFI.
"The AES states are demonstrating a genuine willingness to re-establish contact with the Ecowas states. I believe the region is beginning to build a degree of trust between the two sides, and it is excellent that the current chairman is seizing this opportunity to start laying the groundwork for a real dialogue between the two institutions," he explained.
No longer being part of the group doesn't stop the AES states from cooperating with their neighbours, he added, especially for states that lack a coastline, for the issue of the free movement of people and of course for regional security.
"There is the question of how to envision the future of relations between the parties and Ecowas. These are the issues that will certainly fuel the discussions between the two presidents," he said
(with AFP)
