Who can speak on behalf of the people? The new frontiers of protest in the Sahel

Military governments in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger present themselves as restorers of popular sovereignty while dissolving every political party in all three countries and suspending more than 1,174 civil society groups in Burkina Faso alone. In Niger, an attempted mutiny against General Tiani's regime in late August 2026 was put down with Russian backing, underscoring how fragile these juntas remain even as they tighten control.

The UN's human rights office was forced to permanently close its Burkina Faso operation in June 2026 after authorities suspended its activities months earlier. Mali's Goïta secured a five-year presidential term renewable indefinitely, while Niger dissolved legal unions and moved to withdraw from the International Criminal Court.

Amnesty International notes all three regimes lean on identical rhetoric — sovereignty, renewal, anti-imperialism — to justify rule by decree without parliamentary or constitutional review. The protests that helped bring these juntas to power have, in each case, been followed by crackdowns on the very civic space that produced them.

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