MALI’S military leader, Col. Assimi Goita, who is also the current President of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), has announced that Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso will soon introduce new biometric passports under the AES initiative.
This effort is aimed at standardising travel documents and improving citizens’ mobility globally.
This development further signals the three nations distancing themselves from the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), following recent moves to strengthen ties within the AES and establish a confederation that extends beyond military collaboration.
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 “to harmonisefacilitatements 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 Africa 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”.
Eighteen-Eleven Media