Hundreds of participants have gathered in Niger’s capital Niamey for the inauguration of a historic “Conference in Solidarity with the Peoples of the Sahel” that takes place against the backdrop of what some describe as “a decisive uprising against French imperialism” in the Sahel region.
The conference, organized by Pan Africanism Today and the West African People’s Organization (WAPO) and supported by popular organizations in neighboring Benin and Ghana, aims to express support and solidarity with the Alliance of Sahel States (ASS), made up of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, which have been cut off from much of the international community following recent series of military coups. “Many people outside think we are living under a military dictatorship,” said Nigerien leader Aboubakar Alassane of WAPO. “But the delegates who have come to attend the conference are seeing that we are free” and exerting independence like never before, he added.
Addressing the delegates at the Mahatma Gandhi International Conference Centre in Niamey, Achy Ekissi, the secretary general of the Revolutionary Communist Party of Ivory Coast (PCRCI) described the process, which has been initiated by AES, as Africa’s second struggle for independence. “The second will be true independence,” Ekissi said and stated that “we were deceived when we were told we achieved independence in the 1960s” from French colonization. Other speakers have also highlighted how France has used its ‘colonial pact’ to exert control over the natural resources of its African colonies even after their formal independence, leaving them with no capacity to develop infrastructure, education and healthcare.