(Ecofin Agency) - Benin and Burkina Faso will set up a framework agreement for cross-border cooperation. Delegations from the two countries took part this week in a workshop for the bilateral validation of a convention to coordinate the management of their common border.

According to the Beninese authorities, the new agreement aims to strengthen ties between the border populations. It will also provide a legal basis for launching development projects in the region with the support of technical and financial partners. Therefore, the deal should make it possible to correct the dysfunctions related to cross-border cooperation, in particular to the absence of a legal framework governing cross-border administrative cooperation in the two countries, the inadequacy of communication actions, and the mobilization of actors around the management of cross-border issues.

While the West African border areas have for several years been one of the main scenes of attacks by armed groups, the agreement should also make it possible to combat insecurity. On May 1, 2019, two French tourists were kidnapped and their guide was killed in the Pendjari Park on the Benin-Burkinabe border. Since this event, the first of its kind in Benin, surveillance at the border on the Beninese side has been reinforced and the authorities hope to put an end to the terrorist threat in the region by improving the living conditions of the populations.

“The signing of this document will enable the two countries to benefit from integrative projects for the benefit of cross-border populations and is proof of the implementation of the African Union Convention on cross-border cooperation,” said Marcel Baglo (photo, center), Director General of the Beninese Agency for the Integrated Management of Border Areas (ABeGIEF). 

Let’s note that the document will be submitted in the next few days for signature by the competent authorities of the two countries.

Moutiou Adjibi Nourou