Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger will soon introduce new biometric passports issued by their new alliance, after their withdrawal the West African Ecowas bloc earlier this year.
Mali's leader said Sunday that the three countries would soon be putting into circulation a biometric passport of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
The introduction is being done “with the aim of harmonising travel documents in our common area and facilitating the mobility of our citizens throughout the world", Mali’s junta leader Assimi Goita said in a televised address on Sunday evening.
He spoke on the eve of the one year anniversary of the three countries' decision to form their own alliance, after cutting ties with France.
In January Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger quit the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), which they said was under the influence of former colonial powers.
Goita on Sunday also promised that a common investment bank and stabilisation funds would be put in place, along with a common news channel to "promote a harmonious dissemination of information in our three states".
Ecowas, which has sought to convince the three countries, which have been run by military leaders since a series of coups started in 2020, to reconsider their decision to leave, and has warned that their withdrawal would undermine the freedom of movement and common market of the 400 million people living in the bloc.
(with Reuters)
