In July 2023, I wrote with the headline “Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic’s North of Gulf of Guinea Treaty Organization* (NGGTO) – Attack on One Is Attack on the Three!” In that piece, I explained thus: “Right now in West Africa, Mali and Burkina Faso have jointly told ECOWAS, led by Nigeria (holding the rotating Chairmanship), that if it fights the Niger Republic junta, they will fight to defend the Niger Republic sovereignty. The junta overthrew a democratic president a few days ago. Here, Mail and Burkina Faso are the NGGTO* (North of Gulf of Guinea Treaty Organization), analogous to NATO in Ukraine! “
Today, that has been done: “Mali’s interim president, Assimi Goita, said on Saturday night that he signed the Liptako-Gourma Charter with the leaders of Burkina Faso and Niger, “with the aim of establishing a collective defense and mutual assistance framework.” …“Any attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of one or more contracted parties will be considered an aggression against the other parties,” according to the text of the charter, as cited by Reuters.
The charter establishes an Alliance of Sahel States, which comprises three countries that had previously been members of the Paris-supported G5 Sahel pact with Chad and Mauritania, and which has fallen apart following a series of military coups.
The defense minister of Mali, Abdoulaye Diop, explained that this “alliance will be a combination of military and economic efforts between the three countries,” with a focus on the fight against terrorism, particularly in the Liptako-Gourma region, where the borders of the three neighbors meet
Sure – they came up with a clever name, but I saw this coming. Next year, if the Ukraine war continues with Russia, you will read a charter among Russia, Iran and North Korea without mutually assured defense, but heavy on sharing military capabilities and support. And if the war continues to 2025, China will be added in the midst.
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Good People, the world is not looking safer. NATO will get Sweden and Norway, but China is getting closer to Russia. If you analyze recent alliances, you will not see everything as a win for NATO because making China more entwined with Russia, even as it gets Sweden and Norway, is not a clear victory. Military budgets of Sweden and Norway are rounding numbers in China’s.
Left and right, everyone is losing in this war. Russia is losing. NATO is losing. Ukraine has suffered and deserves peace. But unfortunately, as the war rages, alliances shift and the world becomes more polarized.
Indeed, without the Russia-Ukraine war, France would have bombed Niger and the military junta, but it cannot do that because it has mirrors in Paris. And that is why everyone has forgotten Gabon’s coup because if you attack the military leaders, you are a mini-Russia. Russia weakened France and the whole of Europe in Africa, as it clips the hands of France, to do its usual game in Africa these days.
The world has evolved – and everyone is a victim except military contractors and weapon manufacturers, and their investors.
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What is happening now, is it good or bad thing? Not sure anyone has a definitive answer on that, depending on where you are standing on the equator.
The people who have been lied to for decades are gradually discovering that all they have been told were lies, and as more people ask questions, those who built and maintained empires through subjugation have become increasingly uncomfortable.
There can be no peace without justice, and as long as injustice reigns, nobody should be wishing for peace. Those whose relevance and wealth are products of chaos in other places are also doing their bit to destabilize more places.
In this world, peace is not even an option.