Since the coup d’état in Niger on July 26, Algeria has refused to recognize the putschists. But the situation completely changed on December 26, the Nigerien Minister of Foreign Affairs having been received at length in Algiers.
Algeria has always been on the side of Niger in all the crises that the country has had to face in the past.” Coming out of a long audience granted to him by his Algerian counterpart, Ahmed Attaf, the head of Nigerien diplomacy, Bakary Sangaré, set the tone.
After an isolation that lasted several months, the military regime which took power by force in Niamey on July 26, 2023, relished this international recognition which was slow in coming, especially since a few days earlier, it was already in Rabat for a meeting dedicated to the Sahel region.
It was in Algeria that the Nigerien official savored this small victory. Because, since the start of the political crisis in its country, Algiers has had a line of conduct that has not varied: while demanding a “rapid return” to “constitutional order” and the reinstallation of President Mohamed Bazoum in power, she vigorously opposed a military intervention, once considered by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and France. Then, to get ahead of the other powers, it made a concrete proposal that consisted of going through a six-month transition period during which the country would be presided over by a “consensual civilian personality”.
Was this already the beginning of a fait accompli acceptance? “I think that Algeria has recognized the end of Mohamed Bazoum’s reign and has realized that the putschists are a reality with which we must now work. This is also the choice that was made by the Americans. Even ECOWAS is negotiating with the new masters of Niamey,” explains an Algerian journalist who knows the Nigerien issue.
Unlike previous putsches in certain countries in the Sahel region, those of recent years have gone beyond the sole national framework of the countries concerned. With the aim of “hunting out” foreign forces and above all facing the increasingly serious threat from terrorist groups, the military in power in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have created a Sahel alliance with a view to pooling their forces and to speak with one voice in the face of a demanding international community on questions of democratization of these regimes.
It is the creation of this “coalition” that seems to have attracted the attention of Algiers, according to Malian researcher Aboubacar Ba.
“This Sahel alliance has recorded encouraging results” in the fight against terrorist groups, he told TRT-français. The academic, who specializes in the study of terrorist groups, explains that the creation of this group also allows countries in the region to take charge of themselves and no longer rely on foreign forces. Another point of satisfaction for Algiers is that it makes non-interference in the internal affairs of countries a priesthood.
For Boubacar Ba, another recent event could have pushed Algiers to mend ways with its southern neighbor; the recent quarrel with Mali would have pushed the Algerian authorities to rely on Niamey to not lose their footing in the region. There was certainly a slight chill in September between Algiers and Niamey over the outcome of the Algerian proposal, but this quickly dissipated and realpolitik took over. Especially since unlike Mali, Niger has always been a partner, even a loyal and less complicated neighbor due to the unity of political power and a weak presence of factions and armed dissidence which poison the lives of Malians for example.
Added to this is another major detail. “Niger is a strategic economic partner of Algeria,” recalls Zine Charfaoui, a journalist for the French-speaking daily El Watan, a specialist in Sahel issues. Our interlocutor recalls that Algeria needs a stable Niger because it will house the Trans-Saharan gas pipeline, which will leave Nigeria to transport natural gas to Europe via Algeria. However, a good part of this pharaonic project of more than 4000 km is already ready, notably on the Algerian side which already has three pipelines that connect Africa to Europe, and on the Nigerian side.
All that remains is to cross Niger to complete a project initially planned for 2027. However, the continuation of the conflict in this country risks further delaying the project which will be financed by Niger’s two neighboring countries, Algeria. and Nigeria, and the European Union.
Beyond the economic dimension, Algeria is seeking stability in Niger to also avoid a huge migratory flow towards its borders because despite the existence of a bilateral agreement that allows Algiers to “send back” Nigerien migrants, dozens of thousands of children, women and men cross the border of the two countries to take up positions in different Algerian cities.
The phenomenon, already encouraged by drought and poverty, therefore risks being amplified by a possible political crisis. Hence the need to resolve the current situation quickly. Especially since according to Nigerien sources, the return of Mohamed Bazoum to power is “outdated”. The ECOWAS countries and even Algeria are reportedly in the process of negotiating with the Nigerien military authorities an honorable and secure exit for the deposed president who would have expressed the wish to seek treatment abroad. This would mean the end of the crisis, especially if the head of state, General Abdourahmane Tchiani, accepts the transition period of two years instead of three as he proposed. This will then be the end of the crisis and the return to normal in a country that has no longer counted its coups d’état since its independence in 1960.
