Burkina Faso is keeping its gold. Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso are building a currency to replace the one France imposed on them. The Sahel is rewriting the rules.
Captain Ibrahim Traore has moved to take full control of Burkina Faso’s gold mining industry. Artisanal gold exports have been suspended. Foreign mining companies are being pushed out. The country cleared its entire external debt in early 2025 and redirected those funds toward schools, hospitals, and public infrastructure.
The goal is simple. Burkina Faso’s gold must benefit Burkina Faso’s people.
And it does not stop there.
Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, the three nations of the Alliance of Sahel States, are laying the groundwork for a new currency to replace the CFA franc. They have already established a new regional financial institution to manage the process. The proposed currency is called the Sira. It is intended to be gold backed.
The CFA franc was created by France in 1945. African countries were given independence but kept on the same currency, with reserves held in Paris and the exchange rate set in France. It was independence with a leash around its neck.
That leash is being cut.
This will not happen overnight. Building a sovereign currency takes years of institutional work. But the direction is clear and the infrastructure is being built.
Three of the poorest countries on earth, by Western measures, are attempting something that no African bloc has successfully done before. They are trying to own their money, their minerals, and their future at the same time.
Whether you agree with their politics or not, what is happening in the Sahel deserves the attention of every African on this continent.