Will Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso Become One Country?

I know the news mostly talks about the possibility of a federation, the definition of which is usually vague enough to accommodate an alliance of countries without actually changing their borders or their governance, but let's humor the idea of the title and thumbnail that it could go farther than that and all 3 countries could genuinely become one. Well, to be fair, it definitely can be argued that most of Mali and Burkina Faso share similar enough religions and native languages that they could potentially become a singular country, but unfortunately, the same just can't be said for most of Niger's territory -- especially its northern half -- and even if they did manage to solve that problem, the current war in Sudan clearly shows military leaders don't like it when one of them is arbitrarily chosen to be above the others.

The problem is that each one of the states thinks that they will soon control the other 2. There is no way they can peacefully just pick a leader with the other ones stepping down

I'd love to see Liberia and Sierra Leone combine as well but everyone wants to be king of a hill, rather than a minister of a mountain

They don’t need to become one country but they can become a sort of federation where each country work very close together sharing trade, currency, military and other important aspects. This will grow each country individually whilst not becoming one country as a whole which could cause problems down the line.

This will go the same way as happened when Gaddafi tried to form an African Union, everyone thought it was a great idea until it came to decided how it should be led. At that point every country thought they should lead it and the rest should be subservient. This will go no differently. Military dictatorships are well known for trying to grab more power and control, they are not known for peaceful cooperation or ceding power to others. Those 3 states are only on board with the idea because they think somehow it will result in them ruling the other 2 countries.

The first task that must be focused on is educating people and spreading knowledge, because if a person learns, he realizes and comprehends the meaning of union and unity

The French sent only 4000 troops to cover security interests in 5 countries? It's not a shock they were sent packing. I hope the USA or Russia doesn't get too involved. Africa is in the most-dire need of creating its own destiny, whatever that future looks like for them, it's a huge and diverse continent, deserving of its own voices in the world.

taking video and comments into consideration: single country = unlikely federation/confederacy = possible with unifiying factor being Russian influence

The idea that any of the three power-hungry corrupt military juntas would give up an ioda of power for some sort of political reason is ridiculous.

I like how every body in the comments just became an expert in geopolitics, internal african politics and history, they even have an intimate knowledge of every ethnic group in Africa 😂😂😂

It'll be interesting to see if these countries can pull their plans off. They have a lot of hurdles they need to overcome!

The interests of each nation's ruling elites will not be satisfied with one large union, as the question of power and leadership will only serve to divide and eventually undo any such union. This idea will go the way of the East African Federation, a cute idea fo theorists but an impossible to implement institution due to the inherent weakness, corruption, and objectively unstable nature of all the states involved.

Imagine uniting 3 countries and still managing to be landlocked?

If their goal is to discourage invasion, giving their detractors proof they've been working together and that the later coups were working together from the start, is probably a bad idea. You know, since that was the reason to invade being considered.

man, I don't get people who say "All of Africa's instability is due to the Europeans, Europeans should never get involved in Africa" but then in the next sentence ask some other global power to intervene.

Interesting stuff

I have not been keeping abreast with the happenings of the 3 states. Reading all your musings and comments is fascinating

As with most of these clickbait titles after a few minutes "Seems unlikely". Merging countries is very rare, most leaders don't want to be second-in-command.

Awesome sponsor. Nice to see

Being mixed and half Burkinese i really don't know much about the place! thanks for the video very interesting