On November 6, 2023, the Moroccan sovereign announced his intention to turn Morocco towards the Atlantic and, in doing so, to involve the Sahel countries in this initiative by offering them access to the sea. Recently, the Minister of Affairs Foreign Affairs received his counterpart from Burkina Faso in audience to address this issue.
On September 16, 2023, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso signed the Liptako-Gourma charter, giving birth to the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a structure intended to function as a strategic and cooperative alliance between its members. This region is subject to geopolitical tensions. Isolated on the international scene, Morocco has reached out to the actors of the AES by including them in its Pan-African Atlantic project. The initiative stems from a royal wish. In his speech delivered on November 6 on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of the Green March, King Mohammed VI proposed the launch of an international initiative promoting access of the Sahel States to the Atlantic Ocean.
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“For such a proposal to succeed, it is essential to upgrade the infrastructure of the Sahel States and connect them to the transport and communication networks established in their regional environment,” explained the sovereign in his speech. In Marrakech, on December 23, Moroccan diplomacy invited the foreign ministers of these four states (Mali, Burkina, Niger, Chad), sanctioning this first meeting with the adoption of a road map.
Africa must trust Africa
“The desire to build together is the only guarantee for a reliable and sustainable African Atlantic space. This is why the Moroccan initiative for the promotion of the Atlantic Africa space would benefit from being part of a dynamic of collective appropriation in all the countries of the region. This should be the business of States, but also, and above all, of civil society and the people of the region,” explained Professor Jamal Machrouh, of the Policy Center for the New South, in a note produced on the subject. “The royal initiative to facilitate access to the Atlantic for the benefit of the Sahel countries, launched in November 2023, was very quickly followed by a meeting held in Marrakech on December 23, in which the ministers participated of Foreign Affairs of Morocco and the four Sahelian countries, to discuss implementation issues. At the end of this meeting, the five ministers agreed on the creation, in each country, of a task force responsible for conducting discussions and presenting proposals on the modalities for making the initiative a reality,” explains the ‘expert.
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It should also be remembered that the initiative involves a plan to open up the countries of the Sahel by facilitating their access to the Atlantic Ocean. According to the United Nations, landlocked countries see their gross domestic product reduced by 20% simply because of their lack of access to the sea. Relations between the Sahel and Morocco have existed throughout time. The Moors, the Tuaregs… All these tribes attest to economic exchanges through caravan trade.
A regional economic zone?
At a time when the world and geoeconomic spaces are being further reorganized, Africa needs more than ever to move towards an economic policy of large groups. “Against all odds, Atlantic African countries are trying to build their strategic autonomy. In this quest, the sea could constitute the figurehead, for two reasons: first, control of the sea will allow the countries of the region to establish their sovereignty over a large part of their territory previously ignored, maritime spaces; then, the intelligent exploitation of marine resources could constitute an invaluable vector of growth and development,” underlines a study by the Policy Center.
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“I think that this initiative constitutes an excellent prelude to increased intra-African integration, since it can be seen as a catalyst for economic emergence and inclusion of more countries, in particular the Sahel countries which do not have the “opportunity for an Atlantic facade,” confides Hicham Bensaid Alaoui, economist and CEO of Alliance Trade Maroc. For his part, economist Driss Aissaoui declares: “The Atlantic initiative project is the future. More than twenty African countries will use their knowledge and know-how to transmit value and become vectors of wealth and development. »
