Morocco will give Sahel -led countries in Sahel -led access to a port in West Sahara

Foreign ministers of military -run Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have expressed support for an initiative that can gain access to Morocco ports in the Atlantic Sea, and through it – access to world trade.

The Moroccan State News Agency’s announcement followed a meeting with King Mohammed Six in Rabat. The three Western Africa countries, which do not border Morocco, have no access to the sea, but are experiencing difficult economic times, facing armed Islamist groups and united in the so -called Union of the Sahal countries after a series of military coups that led them to power and caused a break with France.

A year and a half after the proposal, the three countries have stated their « full maintenance and commitment » to accelerate the project, according to the Moroccan Foreign Ministry.

At the same time, access is likely to be through the Western Sahara, which Morocco considers to be its own, but which few European countries admit to it.

Why right now

Their economic isolation has deepened since withdrawal last year by the economic community of the West African countries (Ecowas), the West African block from Senegal to Nigeria. Even after the coup in Niger in the summer of 2023, he deepened the insulation of the region and increased tensions with Ecowas, Morocco, a leading investor in some industries in West Africa such as agriculture and finance, suggested similar assistance.

The initiative has returned to the agenda for the three countries after the relations between Mali and the bordering Algeria, a rival of Morocco, have deteriorated. The Algerian army removed the Mali drone this month and came to an exchange of accusations and the outburst of the accumulated tension for months. Mali believes that Algeria is closing his eyes to the presence of jihadists and Tuareg separatists along the common border.

Algeria fears that the actions of Maliyskaa Army and Russian mercenaries around the border can cause instability and a new wave of displacement.

Algeria interrupted his ties with Morocco in 2021 and supported the Polisario front, which seeks an independent state in Western Sahara. In December, Morocco mediated the release of four French spies detained in Burkina Faso, five months after Paris recognized Rabat’s sovereignty over the West Sahara.