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Canadian businesses are complaining that the Sahel Revolutionary leaders are preventing them from making the gigantic profits they once made.
Canada has long profited from West Africa’s gold resources. In fact, Canadian companies are some of the largest investors in the region’s mining sector; every year, these firms extract billions in revenue from the region. Right now, however, Canadian companies in West Africa are quarreling with an increasingly independent bloc of states—made up of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger—determined to constrain the ability of foreign corporations to profit from African resources.
Last month, tensions flared between the government of Mali and Canadian mining giant Barrick Gold following the arrest of four Barrick employees for alleged financial crimes. Less than two weeks later, sources revealed that Mali is seeking $500 million in outstanding taxes from the globe-spanning Canadian company (Barrick raked in a $1.27 billion profit last year).
The clash between Barrick and Mali represents the latest confrontation between Western capital and the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a trio of military-led, anti-imperialist governments that have severed ties with the US and France, withdrawn from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and formed a confederation based on mutual defence, complementary industrialization, and eventually a common currency and shared market. The alliance has also accepted Russian military support against Islamist insurgencies.
The AES’s defence of African sovereignty, and its plans to federalize into a single state, have led many Africans to tout the alliance as a resurgence of pan-Africanist values on the continent.
Earlier this year, Barrick expressed concern over the expanded role of the Malian state in the mining sector. Mali’s new mining code, approved in August 2023, allows the government to take a 10 percent stake in mining projects with the option to purchase a further 20 percent within the first two years of production. It also allows Malian state and local interests to take a 35 percent stake in new mining projects, up from 20 percent under the previous code. These reforms led Barrick CEO Mark Bristow to issue a warning to the West African country: “Be careful you don’t compromise the benefits to Mali by taking too much…” In a conference call with analysts, Bristow demeaned Malians’ ability to manage their own affairs, remarking, “We’re dealing with people that are not particularly competent in the mining industry.”
With the arrest of Barrick employees and the $500 million tax bill, tensions continue to rise. Though Barrick generally avoids outright condemnations of mining sector reforms in Mali, the relationship between the Canadian company and Mali’s popular anti-imperialist government is clearly fraying.
In May 2024, the governments of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger finalized the creation of the AES. Like several other West African countries including Guinea and Gabon, the military has recently seized power in these nations: Mali in 2021, Burkina Faso in 2022, and Niger in 2023. The alliance between these three countries was expedited by the aggressive response of France and ECOWAS to the coups, which included invasion threats and economic sanctions.
The AES coups are different from those in Guinea and Gabon. As leaders, Mali’s Assimi Goïta, Burkina Faso’s Ibrahim Traoré, and Niger’s Abdourahamane Tchiani are far more politically advanced than their counterparts in other West African nations, as evidenced by the AES’s expulsion of French and US troops and its larger goal of economic integration and industrialization. The takeover of anti-imperialist governments in the Sahel also led Canada to withdraw its troops from the region.
The AES governments enjoy strong public support. They are backed by a constellation of social forces including Yerewolo in Mali, the M62 Movement in Niger, and the National Coordination of Civil Society Organizations in Burkina Faso. Also of note in Burkina Faso is the Thomas Sankara Centre (a pan-Africanist school that supports the Traoré government), and the Wayiyans or “Night Watch,” groups of ordinary citizens who gather nightly at important locations to defend them from possible destabilization attempts.
While the AES governments have not declared themselves socialist, Traoré has embraced the socialist, pan-Africanist legacy of Sankara, who served as president of Burkina Faso from his coup in 1983 to his assassination in 1987. Traoré’s Prime Minister, Apollinaire Joachim Kyélem de Tambèla, is a Marxist and pan-Africanist who supported Sankara’s efforts to build socialism and economic self-sufficiency in the 1980s. At the same time, the AES is deepening its relationship with leftist Latin American governments in Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba.
Despite its contradictions, the AES is forging an alternative development path to the Western-dominated, neoliberal model that has dominated Africa for so many years. A key element of this framework is the nationalization of resources, a trend that is increasingly hitting Canadian companies like Barrick Gold in their bank accounts.
Mali is not alone in its efforts to increase the state’s role in resource extraction. Niger reclaimed its water supplies from France at the start of this year, and the Tchiani government has also revoked French mining licenses.
In September, the Traoré government nationalized two UK-owned gold mines. Additionally, Traoré recently announced that his government will withdraw mining permits from some foreign companies as a way to increase the country’s share of gold ownership. “We know how to mine our gold,” he said, “and I don’t understand why we’re going to let multinationals come and mine it.”
For its part, Vancouver-based Fortuna Mining claims that its investments in Burkina Faso are safe.
The AES may enjoy wide popular support, but it faces many challenges. Burkina Faso’s leadership claims to have thwarted four coup attempts since Traoré took power in September 2022. On top of this, Islamist insurgencies occupy territory in all three countries. These groups have carried out devastating attacks against civilians and soldiers.
There is also an international dimension to the conflict. On July 29, Andriy Yusov, Ukraine’s military intelligence spokesperson, boasted of Ukrainian support for an Islamist attack that killed 47 Malian troops and 84 mercenaries. Yusov asserted that Ukraine had provided the insurgents with “all the information they needed” to carry out the attack. Ukraine’s alleged involvement led the AES to request that the United Nations “take appropriate measures against [Kyiv’s] subversive actions which strengthen terrorist groups in Africa.”
Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger are walking a tightrope. In addition to war and coup attempts, the AES must contend with various external actors who expect the region to serve their interests, such as the US military, the French government, and Canadian mining companies. If Mali’s recent moves against Barrick Gold are any indication, the relationship between the AES and Canadian mining firms will deteriorate further as the new bloc attempts to forge an alternative path for West Africa.
Canadian Dimension