Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traore. Photo/courtesy.
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are set to launch new biometric passports, Mali’s military leader Colonel Assimi Goita announced on Sunday, as the junta-led states seek to solidify their alliance after splitting from regional bloc ECOWAS.
In a televised address the leader of the confederation Malian president Col Assimi Goïta said the aim of the move was to harmonize travel documents in the Sahel region.
“In the coming days, a new biometric passport of the AES (Alliance of Sahel States) will be put into circulation with the aim of harmonising travel documents in our common area and facilitating the mobility of our citizens throughout the world”, Malian junta leader Assimi Goita announced on Sunday evening.
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Goita also said they were planning to launch a shared information channel “in order to promote a harmonious dissemination of information in our three states.”
The announcement came a day before the three states are due to mark the one-year anniversary of the alliance’s creation.
The passport is set to be devoid of the ECOWAS logo as announced earlier this month.Details on how the passport will operate has not been provided and how it would affect the previous one that allowed visa free movement to 15 countries of the regional bloc ECOWAS.
The Sahel States have been ravaged by insurgency and terrorism in the last couple of years a reason that led to the uprising of the juntas between 2020 and 2023 but have yet seemed to put things under control.
