Lomé Brings AES and ECOWAS to the Same Table — Togo's Sahel Strategy 2026–2028
On April 18, Togo convened a high-level meeting in Lomé that accomplished something few thought possible: placing representatives of the Alliance des États du Sahel and ECOWAS around the same table. The event marked the launch of Togo's new Sahel Strategy 2026–2028 — and signalled the country's emergence as West Africa's indispensable diplomatic bridge.
The geopolitical map of West Africa has been redrawn. Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger — representing some 80 million people and a combined GDP estimated at around $62 billion — left ECOWAS in 2023 to form the Alliance des États du Sahel (AES). The fracture has left regional institutions struggling to maintain coherence, and diplomatic contacts between the two blocs have been rare and tense.
On April 18, 2026, Togo changed that. At the Palais des Congrès in Lomé, under the patronage of President of the Council Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé, ministers of foreign affairs from Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger sat alongside the President of the ECOWAS Commission, the UN Special Representative for West Africa and the Sahel, the African Union High Representative for the Sahel, and special envoys from fifteen countries including France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States — all gathered to hear Togo present its new Sahel Strategy 2026–2028.
Five pillars, one objective
The strategy replaces Togo's 2021 framework and is structured around five pillars:
The economic dimension
Behind the security language, the third pillar carries the most direct economic significance for Togo. The AES countries are landlocked. Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger depend on coastal states — including Togo — for transit trade, port access, and supply chains. The Port of Lomé, West Africa's only natural deepwater port, is a critical artery for the Sahel hinterland.
A deterioration in Sahel-Gulf of Guinea relations directly threatens Togo's logistics revenue and its positioning as a regional trade hub. Conversely, a structured framework for economic cooperation with AES countries opens corridors that benefit Togolese transport, customs, and commerce. Togo's Sahel strategy is, at one level, a geopolitical document — but at another, it is a trade infrastructure argument.
What the AES said
The foreign ministers of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger were unusually warm in their public statements. The Burkina Faso minister praised Togo's approach as one developed close to the Sahel and placing Sahelian populations at its centre — a pointed contrast to strategies he described as elaborated "far from the Sahel and without the Sahel people." The Mali foreign minister spoke of the need to advance cooperation without conditioning it on prior political alignment. Niger's representative echoed both.
The AES countries also formally acknowledged what they called the "strategic nature" of their relations with Togo, rooted in shared history and pan-African solidarity. That language — from countries that have been cutting ties with regional institutions — is significant.
The EU-Togo dimension
On the sidelines of the meeting, President Gnassingbé received João Gomes Cravinho, the EU's Special Representative for the Sahel. The European diplomat praised the meeting's spirit of convergence and reaffirmed the EU's commitment to accompany Togo's priorities — including energy transition, agribusiness, and digital economy. The quality of the Lomé-Brussels dialogue, he noted, remains solid.
For investors watching Togo, the message is consistent: a country that can convene this conversation — AES, ECOWAS, EU, UN, Russia, Canada, and 15 special envoys in one room — is a country with diplomatic capital that translates into economic positioning. The Sahel strategy is not just foreign policy. It is Togo's pitch for its continued relevance as West Africa's indispensable crossroads.