Trump only respects leaders that respect themselves.
Mali 🇲🇱, Burkina Faso 🇧🇫 and Niger 🇳🇪 leaders refused to be bullied by the West, they turned to Russia 🇷🇺 for respectful alliances
Now the US 🇺🇸 have changed tune, it now wants to engage them. The USA 🇺🇸 state department announced that Nick Checker, head of its Bureau of African Affairs, would visit Mali’s capital Bamako to convey the United States’ “respect for Mali’s sovereignty” and chart a “new course” in relations, moving “past policy missteps”.
It adds that the US also looks forward to co-operating with Mali’s allies, neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, “on shared security and economic interests”.
Absent from the agenda is the longstanding American concern for democracy and human rights. The Biden administration had halted military co-operation after coups deposed the elected civilian presidents of all three countries between 2020 and 2023, with Niger’s Mohamed Bazoum still locked up in his own residence.
The US statement makes explicit a radical change in policy that had become increasingly evident over the 12 months since Donald Trump returned to the White House.
The announcement of Checker’s visit goes further in openly declaring respect for Mali’s sovereignty. The message will resonate in Bamako and allied capitals, where military leaders have built their appeal by striking pan-Africanist themes and rejecting former colonial power France.
Burkina Faso’s military leader, Capt Ibrahim Traoré, presents himself as a standard-bearer in resisting “imperialism” and “neo-colonialism”. Through vigorous social media promotion, he has gained huge support for this stance and personal popularity among young people across the continent and beyond.