• The top diplomats of Burkina, Guinea, and Mali have started a vigorous lobbying campaign.
• Olivia, Morissanda, and Abdoulaye have all been to Addis Ababa.
• The joint delegation will keep in touch with other foreign ministers.

Before the African Union summit this weekend, the top diplomats of junta-ruled Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Mali have started a vigorous lobbying campaign to have their nations reinstated in the organization.

After experiencing military takeovers starting in 2020, all three countries have been expelled from the AU and the ECOWAS, and they are therefore unable to attend this weekend’s conference in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

Nonetheless, Olivia Rouamba of Burkina Faso, Morissanda Kouyate of Guinea, and Abdoulaye Diop of Mali have all been to Addis Ababa.

The Malian foreign ministry posted on Facebook that they had a meeting with the Comoran foreign minister, Dhoihir Dhoulkamal, whose nation would soon assume the rotating chair of the AU.

According to the ministry, Diop also met with the presidents of Rwanda and Algeria as well as Ethiopia’s Sahle-Work Zewde.

The visit was part of the three nations’ collaborative attempts to end their suspensions from the AU and ECOWAS, according to the ministry, which did not specify the date of the meeting with Dhoulkamal.

According to the report, the sanctions hampered regional and global assistance for the three Sahel nations’ ongoing transitions back to civilian governance.

In the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, the three ministers had last week launched their combined diplomatic effort.

The joint delegation would keep in touch with other foreign ministers, the head of the AU Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, a top ECOWAS official, and Comoran President Azali Assoumani, according to the Malian foreign ministry.

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