From 2 to 3 January 2023, the Cross-Border Decentralized Cooperation Cell between the Territorial Communities of the Sahel, called “C3Sahel”, held its ordinary congress in Ouagadougou.

The two-day C3Sahel congress aimed to reinvigorate the governance of the structure, in order to find appropriate solutions to the development issues of local authorities in the Sahel. This session was an opportunity to review the implementation of the activities of the outgoing office and to install the new Steering Committee office (COPIL) and finally to draw up the action plan for the year 2023.

According to the president of the Timbuktu Regional Council and outgoing vice-president of the C3Sahel, Ould Hamadi Boubacar, “the governance of our umbrella organization has taken a hit following the decree N°02/004/PRES/MPSR of 1 February 2022, dissolving the local government councils of Burkina Faso”. According to him, the transformation of the territorial authorities of Burkina Faso into special delegations has led to an institutional dysfunction of the C3 Sahel. Because for him, four of the nine member local authorities have been affected, namely the municipalities of Dori, Sebba, Gorom Gorom and Djibo.