Three Sahel Juntas Exit French Orbit, Embrace Russian Security Partnership

Burkina Faso's June rupture with France caps a regional exodus. Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso—all military-led governments—have severed ties with their former colonial ruler and now rely on Russian security contractors through the Alliance des États du Sahel. This dismantles six decades of French dominance in West Africa. The junta regimes weaponized anti-colonial grievance and resentment over French monetary and trade controls, signaling a broader strategic realignment away from Paris.