Morocco has agreed to grant access to West African landlocked states in using its sea
The states which are under military rule are Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.
The initiative would facilitate their access to international trade.
The Morocco’s Atlantic ports would accommodate these nations when the agreement is firmed up.
This agreement follows a meeting between the countries’ foreign ministers and Morocco’s King Mohammed VI in Rabat.
The Sahel States had exited the Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS), a bloc which frown at the upstage of democracy in the countries. Alliance of Sahel States (AES).
ECOWAS had relaxed its sanction place on these countries but they preferred to withdraw from the regional body to which they were founding members
Morocco’s
move would however enhances the AES’s economic standing, diversifies trade routes, and strengthens Morocco’s influence in the Sahel.
Experts however see the initiative as costly because there were seaports in neighbouring Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana which had always serviced the Sahel States.
