Madar (Dakar) - Mali's transitional president, General Assimi Goita, received Senegal's Minister of African Integration and Foreign Affairs, Cheikh Niang, at Koulouba Palace in Bamako on Monday 9 November 2026. Niang carried a message of "friendship and fraternity" from President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, three days after a similar stop in Niamey, as Dakar reaches out to two capitals of the Confederation of Sahel States while Senegal holds the rotating chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
The tour comes less than a month after the first round of formal negotiations between ECOWAS and the AES, held in Dakar on 17 October and chaired by Niang himself as president of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers. It ended with agreement on joint working groups to prepare a framework agreement for cooperation between the two blocs.
In Bamako: a "convergence of views"
According to the Malian presidency, as reported by the African Press Agency (APA), the audience was attended by Minister of State for the Economy and Finance Alousseni Sanou, Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop and several of the head of state's aides. It covered bilateral cooperation, African integration and the regional situation.
Speaking after the meeting, Niang said he had delivered a message of friendship and fraternity from President Faye to Goita, together with a wish to strengthen relations between the two countries. He recalled the geographical, historical, cultural and human ties between Mali and Senegal, and the experience of the Mali Federation, which briefly united the two territories at independence and which he presented, according to the Malian presidency, as the symbol of "a common destiny".
The Senegalese minister spoke of a "convergence of views and approaches" between Bamako and Dakar on several issues of common interest, without detailing any initiatives that might follow, and said the regional security situation had been discussed briefly. The content of the message was not made public.
Goita asked his guest to convey his greetings and thanks to President Faye, stressing the long-standing ties between the two peoples. The Malian presidency presented the audience as a bilateral step between Bamako and Dakar, the agency said.
In Niamey: "We understand and respect the choices"
The first stop, in Niamey, came on Friday 6 November, when Niger's Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine received the Senegalese minister, who carried a message from President Faye to President General Abdourahamane Tiani, according to Niger's state daily Le Sahel and the Niger news agency ANP. Niang conveyed President Faye's condolences on the death of the Nigerien head of state's father.
Niang said relations between Senegal and Niger had remained excellent since independence despite the changes in the West African space: "We have a relationship of trust that grows stronger by the day and is also reflected at a personal level," he said.
Referring to the division of the region between ECOWAS and the Alliance of Sahel States, he said: "We understand and respect the choices made by our brothers in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to create this entity. Both sides felt it was important to maintain dialogue because we share a common space."
"With Senegal holding the ECOWAS chair, we felt it was important to come and talk to our Nigerien brothers, listen to their advice and suggestions, share our views and see how, in the best possible way, we can keep building the West African solidarity our peoples aspire to," he added. According to ANP, he called for arrangements such as the free movement of goods and people to continue.
From the ECOWAS chair to the Dakar table
Senegal has held the rotating ECOWAS chair since the 69th ordinary session of the bloc's Authority of Heads of State and Government, held in Sierra Leone on 19 July 2026, when President Faye took over from Sierra Leone's Julius Maada Bio.
Days later, on 28 July, Faye ended a working visit to Bamako. He said it was part of strengthening dialogue with the Malian authorities under Senegal's ECOWAS chairmanship, and that his talks with Goita covered regional security, counter-terrorism and ways to build trust between ECOWAS and the AES, according to the Malian presidency.
On 16 October, AES foreign ministers meeting in Ouagadougou set three priorities for their negotiations with ECOWAS: preserving member states' sovereignty, strengthening the Confederation and protecting the interests of its people, according to the Burkinabe daily Sidwaya.
The next day, the first formal talks opened in Dakar between the two sides since the three countries left the bloc. Burkina Faso's Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean-Marie Traore said the aim was not for the three countries to return to ECOWAS but to "open a page to formalise new relations", according to RFI.
The round ended, according to the joint communique relayed by the Senegalese news agency APS and published by ECOWAS, with agreement to set up joint thematic working groups to hold technical discussions in areas of common interest, with their results to be "submitted to ministers before their next session". The two sides agreed that their relations would be governed by "the principles of good neighbourliness, respect for sovereignty, and the dignity and well-being of West African peoples".
What comes next
The joint communique said the date and venue of the next round of negotiations would be set later through diplomatic channels. Neither had been announced at the time of writing.
Niang's tour coincided with movement among the AES capitals themselves: Goita visited Niamey on 5 November before travelling to Ouagadougou, where he and President Ibrahim Traore agreed to hold the 11th session of the Burkina-Mali Grand Joint Commission.
No official announcement of a stop by the Senegalese minister in Ouagadougou, the third capital of the Confederation of Sahel States, had been made at the time of writing. Neither Dakar, Niamey nor Bamako has published the text of President Faye's two messages.
