AES Confederation Chiefs of Staff Complete First Regular Meeting; Announce 15,000-Strong Unified Force for Large-Scale Operations

The first regular session of the Committee of Chiefs of Staff of the Alliance of Sahel States Confederation (CCEMC) concluded in Ouagadougou on April 16–17, 2026, producing a decision to scale the AES Unified Force (FU-AES) to 15,000 personnel — three times the 5,000 originally announced at the force's December 2025 inauguration. The expanded force draws on combined army, air, and intelligence assets from Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger under a unified command with full operational authority, meaning troops can be deployed without prior approval from individual national general staffs — a structural improvement over the defunct G5 Sahel Joint Force (2017–2023). A preceding technical working group met from April 7–15, producing recommendations validated at the chiefs' session; conclusions were submitted to the three heads of state for final approval. Burkina Faso's Chief of Staff, Brigadier General Moussa Diallo (presiding officer of CCEMC), declared the force 'ready to conduct operations on the ground.' The force is designed to operate without geographic sector limitations — all three countries' territory is accessible for joint deployment — and builds on lessons from Operation Yereko 2 (March 2025), in which an AES joint operation against IS-Sahel fighters in the Liptako-Gourma tri-border zone killed and arrested multiple fighters. Financing draws on the three member states' national solidarity funds (Burkina's Patriotic Support Fund, Niger's Solidarity Fund for Safeguarding the Homeland, Mali's Support Fund for Basic Infrastructure), deliberately avoiding the external-dependency vulnerability that crippled the G5 Sahel. Russia has backed the AES military consolidation through arms agreements finalized April 2025, supplying combat aircraft, armored vehicles, and communications systems. The announcement follows a rapid sequence of escalation: JNIM's April 13–14 Soum Province offensive killing ~100 FAB militants, FAB's elimination of JNIM field commander Torodo on April 20, and sustained ISGS-JNIM inter-jihadist clashes across Niger's Tillabéri Region throughout April. Independent analysts caution that the 15,000 figure represents authorized strength, with actual deployable numbers significantly lower, and note that the G5 Joint Force similarly announced ambitious numbers before collapsing due to coordination and funding failures.