Candid talk, broken trust: Lomé’s success as a safe diplomatic space

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OPINION

By Christopher Burke

An undeniable truth marks the diplomatic landscape of West Africa. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), comprising Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, are estranged.

Their formal interactions have been reduced to ultimatums, sanctions and declarations of irreversible separation. Political dialogue has been poisoned by mistrust, leaving a vast and dangerous vacuum in regional security.

Events at the Lomé Peace and Security Forum (LPSF) this past weekend focused on strengthening African agency through youth and artificial intelligence (AI) were not simply another geopolitical footnote, but demonstrated a critical step forward.

Hosted by Togo and chaired by former Somali foreign minister Abdisaid Muse Ali, the forum has emerged as an indispensable “Track Two and a Half” platform: one of the few remaining spaces for candid, unscripted exchange among regional and international actors when official channels have stalled.

In the question-and-answer session following presentations by the foreign ministers of the AES states, former Senegalese Prime Minister Aminata Touré proposed a fundamental refoundation of regional integration through an “AES–ECOWAS consultation framework.”

Her intervention, immediately supported by Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas, former President of the ECOWAS Commission, represented a symbolic olive branch and a shift from the demand for an unconditional return to ECOWAS toward an offer of structured reform and dialogue.

The AES foreign ministers’ responses were predictably uncompromising. Mali’s Abdoulaye Diop was unequivocal: “Forget us coming back to ECOWAS; we’re far ahead of that.”

Burkina Faso’s Karamoko Jean Marie Traoré suggested that separation had “built resilience” and demonstrated that “self-reliance is possible.” The real significance lay not in rejection, but in the conditions they outlined for future cooperation—conditions they could voice in a space designed to withstand political heat.

The Forum provided that rare environment. The AES ministers used Lomé to articulate a unified, non-negotiable doctrine of strategic autonomy and an African narrative centred on sovereignty and dignity. Niger’s Foreign Minister Bakary Yaou Sangaré spoke passionately about correcting historical power imbalances and ensuring that natural resources deliver maximum benefit to citizens.

He emphasised national control over security and the re-evaluation of external partnerships, asserting that emerging national strategies had already shown encouraging results in counter-terrorism following a realignment of foreign military cooperation.

The tone was assertive, even defiant, and not all delegations received it comfortably. A clear illustration of the freedom and the friction that true dialogue entails.

The second pillar of the AES position was trust. “We have left ECOWAS, not the region; we can work with ECOWAS for the sake of the people,” Diop clarified, a subtle, but crucial distinction. Beneath this lies a deep perception that some ECOWAS members host or tolerate actors undermining Sahelian security. This accusation of hypocrisy is the political brick wall that formal diplomacy has been unable to dismantle.

By lowering the diplomatic temperature, Lomé made it possible for explosive truths to be aired without derailing the process itself. Touré’s proposal for a consultation framework, later described by her as “a long process,” acknowledges that reconciliation cannot be imposed. It must be rebuilt slowly, through trust and pragmatic cooperation. Her call for an African offensive to end poverty reframed the debate around shared priorities rather than ideological divides.

The outcome of Lomé is not unity, but realism. The new goal is coexistence. Structured, issue-based cooperation where interests align, whether through the African Union, a bespoke AES–ECOWAS mechanism or ad-hoc arrangements on trade and migration. Both blocs know they cannot afford isolation. Their security and prosperity remain inextricably linked.

In this sense, Lomé succeeded. It forced West Africa to confront an uncomfortable but essential truth: dialogue must now focus not on if the AES will return to ECOWAS, but how two ideologically divergent blocs can coexist within one region. The Forum proved that even amid broken trust, there remains room for candid talk. No small achievement in diplomacy.

The writer is a senior advisor at WMC Africa, a communications and advisory agency located in Kampala, Uganda