MEMBERS of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) have affirmed their determination to leave the bloc of west African states.

The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) decided at its summit in the Nigerian capital Abuja last week to extend a dialogue with AES members Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso over their withdrawal for six months.

The AES members had said they intended to leave the bloc in January 2025 and accused the former colonial ruler France of exploiting the regional bloc. 

Ecowas said last week that the decision of the three countries to leave was “noted” but they were extending dialogue for a further six months in order to try to reach an agreement with the AES nations for them to remain members.

But in a statement from the three nations on Sunday said they had put their defence forces on high alert and decided to convert the territorial space they share into a “single zone of military operations,” which would coexist with the national battlefields.

In their statement on Sunday, the AES members said they “note with regret that destabilisation manoeuvres in Ecowas are routinely initiated by a handful of heads of state who impose their desires and foreign agendas on the rest of the organisation.”

They said the additional six months offered by Ecowas is “another attempt to allow the French junta and its deputies to continue planning and conducting destabilisation actions against AES.”

They said that Paris’s decision to close its military bases in African countries is nothing more than a deceptive manoeuvre to exert its influence over those nations in a less visible way.

The statement added that the three members of AES saw the new alliance as a decisive step towards true sovereignty and would bring about a dynamic of profound changes in favour of the people.