There could be some confusion between the République Fédérale d’Allemagne (RFA , BRD in french) and the République Fédérale D’Afrique Occidentale (/de l’ouest - RFAO).
I’m sure there would have been at least one movie by now where some tourist or worker who wanted to go/work in west Germany ends up in the middle of Mali because of a misprint in his contract .
Considering that Senegal and French Sudan combined OTL and assumed the name Mali, a wider federation of all of French West Africa likely could assume the same name.
iirc the federation was supposed to be one of all francophone West Africa. Lack of support (read antagonism to preserve influence) from the French and antagonism between the states reduced its effect. In the end, Senegal left due to providing more money to the Federal Treasury (Mali lacks a port) than it received. The Sudanese Republic became Mali stress its sourness at the projects failure.