• ECOWAS appoints Lansana Kouyaté to lead talks with AES

• AU intensifies mediation to prevent regional split, boost cooperation

• Appointment follows failed efforts to reintegrate Sahel states

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has appointed former Guinean prime minister Lansana Kouyaté as chief negotiator to lead talks with the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), the bloc said on Sunday, March 29, 2026.

Kouyaté will be tasked with facilitating dialogue, reconciling competing regional interests and promoting the organisation’s strategic priorities. “ECOWAS is convinced that his leadership will play a key role in leading the complex talks ahead and fostering constructive dialogue in the interest of regional stability and cooperation,” the organisation said.

The appointment comes as the African Union (AU) steps up diplomatic efforts to reconcile ECOWAS and the AES, aiming to prevent a complete split and maintain cooperation, particularly on security and economic issues.

On Tuesday, March 10, 2026, Mamadou Tangara, the AU’s special representative for Mali and the Sahel, met Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio in Freetown. Bio also serves as the current ECOWAS chair. The visit was part of broader regional efforts to draw up a roadmap to strengthen cooperation between the AES and ECOWAS.

Since the AES withdrawal in January 2024, several figures, including Senegalese President Macky Sall, have been appointed as mediators in efforts to bring the AES countries back into the bloc, but those attempts have failed. The institutional break has not, however, ended all regional cooperation mechanisms: Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger remain part of the sub-region’s free movement zone for people and goods.

Kouyaté has extensive diplomatic experience. In addition to serving as Guinea’s prime minister, he was Guinea’s representative to the United Nations and later the deputy representative of the U.N. secretary-general for Somalia. He also served as executive secretary of ECOWAS.

Lydie Mobio