Algeria and France have been in open crisis since the end of September. The quarrel broke out in broad daylight when President Emmanuel Macron made very harsh and unprecedented remarks with regard to the Algerian power, described in particular as a “politico-military system” living on “the memorial rent”.
The context in which the declarations of the French Head of State were made (a meeting with the “grandchildren” of the Algerian war) and the fact that Mr. Macron questioned the existence of the Algerian nation before French colonization, suggested that the discord only concerned the question of memory, and incidentally, that of the mobility of people since, two days before, Paris announced the reduction by half of the number of visas to be issued to Algerians during the next six months.
The two countries are not quite on the same wavelength on these two issues and many other issues, but they are even less so on the situation in the Sahel.
Three weeks after the start of the quarrel, the newspaper Le Monde explains in an article published Friday, October 22 that the Malian crisis and the foreign military presence in this country bordering Algeria is the main bone of contention between Algiers and Paris, in particular since the entry into contention of Russia with the plan of the transitional authorities in Mali to use the services of the security company Wagner.
One of Algiers’ first reactions to the French president’s remarks was to close its airspace to French army planes going to northern Mali, and Ramtane Lamamra, the head of Algerian diplomacy, immediately surrendered in this country Tuesday, October 4, from where he replied at length to Emmanuel Macron.
Engaged in 2013 as part of Operation Barkhane to fight against terrorist groups in northern Mali, France announced last June the reduction of its troops in this area.
French commitment is costly in terms of image and comes at the expense of securing areas where France has greater economic interests, southern Mali, Burkina Faso, and especially Niger.
It is on these regions that the French army’s action will henceforth be concentrated, writes the newspaper Le Monde in its article on ” the underside of the crisis between Algeria and France”. Did the French authorities expect the Algerian army to take over from their troops in northern Mali?
We just know that on the Algiers side, the eventuality is not on the agenda despite the modification of the Constitution in November 2020 introducing the possibility for the Algerian army to participate in peacekeeping operations. outside the country’s borders.
Wagner in Mali, an obsession for France
Last June, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune pledged never to let the north of Mali become a “sanctuary for terrorists” while specifying about a possible military intervention by Algeria that “the solution is not there”.
To preserve the territorial integrity of Mali and its sovereignty, Algeria always favors the negotiation and the pursuit of the implementation of the Algiers agreements. “The elements of the ANP will never be sacrificed for money, as mercenaries do,” reiterated the head of state on Sunday, October 10 during a meeting with the national press.
Regarding “mercenaries”, Mali is preparing to welcome them by negotiating with the Wagner company, considered to be the armed wing of Russia. The project is no longer at the rumor stage, the transition authorities in Mali having confirmed the negotiations.
The Reuters agency even specified the number of men to be deployed and the cost of the operation: a thousand soldiers for 9.5 million euros per month. A presence that is not greeted with enthusiasm by the ECOWAS and the European Union, but it is France that is most irritated by the possibility of the irruption of Russia in the region.
“On Mali, the Minister (French Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves le Drian) alerted his Russian counterpart to the serious consequences of an involvement of the Wagner group in this country,” the Quai d’Orsay indicated on September 24. after an interview between the two heads of diplomacy.
The great enigma is the opinion of Algeria in relation to the entry into Mali of Wagner’s mercenaries. Rumors recently indicated the intention to participate in the financial cost of the operation, but the spokesman of the MFA denied it on October 13, denouncing “a rude and malicious manipulation”.
The French newspaper Le Monde returns to the charge on Friday 22 October and maintains that the Wagner project is not viewed with a negative eye in Algiers.
The role of the security company in Libya is at odds with Algeria’s position, knowing that it works for the forces of Marshal Khalifa Haftar, but faced with the deterioration of the security situation in Mali, “the presence of Russia in this country would not be a foil, ”writes Le Monde, citing Algerian interlocutors and affirming that the scenario has been confirmed with a high-level French source.
