Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, which have no coastline, hope to reach global shipping lanes through a new deal with Morocco.
Morocco’s state press reported that envoys from the three Sahel countries met King Mohammed VI in Rabat on Monday and endorsed a Moroccan scheme that would open Atlantic sea routes to their trade.
The step reshapes West African politics and commerce because the Alliance of Sahel States has lacked a maritime outlet since leaving the Economic Community of West African States.
First revealed in November 2023, the Moroccan plan would let Sahel goods move through ports on the Atlantic coast. The approach would expand Moroccan influence across the region and could spark new growth in the Sahel, helping the three countries blunt economic losses that followed their break with ECOWAS.
“Morocco’s initiative is conducive to diversifying our access to the sea,” Mali’s Foreign Minister, Abdoulaye Diop, told state media. This development comes as the three AES nations look to reduce their dependence on ECOWAS border states such as Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal.
The agency in Rabat framed the talks as evidence of the kingdom’s strong and lasting ties with the three Sahel partners. The gesture arrives amid growing friction between the Sahel trio and Algeria, a regional rival of Morocco.
The Sahel alliance has moved away from Western allies, told French troops to leave and stepped up defense contacts with Russia.
Relations between the alliance and Algeria are also sour. Algeria broke diplomacy with Morocco and supports the Polisario Front quest for an independent Western Sahara, land claimed by the kingdom.
Morocco has spent large sums in the wider region, among them a one billion dollar port scheme in Dakhla, Western Sahara, to expand maritime facilities.
The kingdom recently helped secure freedom for four French nationals jailed in Burkina Faso after Paris affirmed Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
