Burkina Faso's imports from its Alliance of Sahel States (AES) partners Mali and Niger fell 80.4% from a year earlier to 1.6bn FCFA (€2.4mn) in the second quarter of 2026, statistics agency INSD said in its quarterly trade report. Exports to the two countries were 12.5bn FCFA (€19.1mn), or 0.5% of the total, while ECOWAS members, which no longer include the three AES states, supplied 23.6% of imports, the agency said.
Analysis: Trade with Burkina Faso's two Sahel alliance partners remains small compared with commerce with coastal ECOWAS members, which totaled around 304bn FCFA (€463mn) in the quarter—more than 21 times as much, by our calculation. Ghana supplied 61% of Burkina Faso's imports from ECOWAS, with refined fuel accounting for 51.6% of bloc supplies. Officials from the Sahel alliance and Togo are developing a customs union and origin-certification rules, but have not set an adoption date. Any changes could affect cross-border trade in fuel, animal feed and medicines, even if current recorded volumes are modest.
Source: INSD, INSD, Note trimestrielle sur les statistiques du commerce extérieur, deuxième trimestre 2026 (37 pages, posted late October 2026), Q2 2026; INSD, https://www.insd.bf/sites/default/files/2026-10/SCE_2T2026.pdf, Q2 2026