Madar (Ouagadougou) - The governments of the member states of the Confederation of Sahel States (AES: Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger) on Wednesday, 11 November 2026, asked organisers of fundraising for confederal projects to obtain prior authorisation from the competent bodies and warned against paying money to unauthorised people or organisations, according to a communique issued in Ouagadougou and reported by Mali's state news agency AMAP.
The statement was signed by Burkina Faso's government spokesperson, Pingdwende Gilbert Ouedraogo, on behalf of the spokespersons of the Confederation's governments.
It noted a growing number of fundraising initiatives by associations, groups and individuals to support confederal projects, and welcomed what it called a "patriotic and solidarity-based" drive. For traceability and security, however, it asked the organisers to contact the national AES committees or commissions to obtain prior authorisation.
The governments urged citizens, the Sahelian and African diasporas and AES supporters to be vigilant, to refrain from paying funds to any person or body without official authorisation, and to report any suspicious collection carried out in the Confederation's name to the authorities.
The communique also recalled that the Confederal Bank for Investment and Development (BCID-AES) is the Confederation's dedicated financial instrument, intended to pool resources for shared, home-grown development. It gave no amounts and cited no specific fraud cases.
