Bamako: Senegal’s new president Bassirou Diomaye Faye on Thursday began his first visit to the financial region with Burkina Faso to strengthen relations with the two countries that left ECOWAS.
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are under military rule after the coup.
In January, the trio announced they were leaving the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which they said was influenced by France, to form their own regional group, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
Faye landed in the Malian capital on Thursday and headed to the presidential palace, where he held talks with junta leader Colonel Assimi Goita.
Fay later told reporters that Goita was “absolutely inflexible” about the possibility of reconciliation with ECOWAS.
“I do not expect to see ECOWAS return to a new foundation that will save us from the situation we are in now,” he said.
Faye then arrived in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, where she was received by the junta leader, Ibrahim Traore, Reime said on her website.
“This visit is part of the strengthening of good neighborly historical relations, fraternal friendship, solidarity and multilateral cooperation,” the Senegalese president said in a previous statement.
Faye has made several visits to West Africa since being sworn in as the region’s youngest elected president in early April.
The Senegalese government said in a statement that the continental strategy was “important to strengthen pan-Africanism and strengthen interregional integration in areas of diplomatic priority”.
The President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, has called on Fayya to use his blog post to help resolve the conflict with the three countries.
