Economy

An icy wind is blowing over diplomatic relations between Mali and Algeria. During his national address on December 31, the president of the transition of Mali, Assimi Goïta, announced the launch of a “direct inter-Malian dialogue for peace and reconciliation”, affirming that he now wanted to “prioritize national ownership of the peace process.

This announcement refers to the negotiations linked to the agreement signed in 2015, under the aegis of neighboring Algeria, with armed separatist groups in the North, predominantly Tuareg.

A way of sidelining Algeria, the main regional mediator on this very sensitive issue.

Return of the war to North Mali

The Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in Mali, commonly known as the “Algiers Agreement”, was negotiated following the recapture in 2014 by rebel groups of several localities in the North, including the city of Kidal.

To avoid the splitting of the State and chart a path towards peace, the pact provided for the disarmament of these movements and the integration of their members within the Malian administration. At the same time, extensive political powers were to be granted to this northern area, which they call “Azawad”, without however granting it autonomous status.

Having come to power during the double coup d’état of August 2020 and May 2021, the country’s new leaders were committed to continuing the implementation of this agreement. But relations with former rebel groups have gradually been strained to the breaking point.

After demanding and obtaining the departure of Minusma – the mission of the Blue Helmets in Mali, guarantor of the implementation of the agreement – ​​the Malian armed forces launched an operation in the North during the summer, considered a declaration of war by the signatory movements. In mid-November, the army, accompanied by its auxiliaries from the Russian Wagner militia, retook the town of Kidal, a Tuareg stronghold controlled for a decade by armed groups.

Read alsoMali: what you need to know regarding the final withdrawal of Minusma

“Threat” for Algeria

This resumption of hostilities in North Mali is seen with concern by neighboring Algeria, bordering the Kidal region and leader of mediation between Mali and armed groups in the North.

“Algiers’ involvement in the peace process in Mali is not disinterested,” underlines Malian journalist Malick Konaté. “The two countries share 1,300 km of border and Algeria considers the presence of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda and [au groupe] Islamic State in this area as a threat once morest its own territory.”

“Algiers has been the main mediator on the Tuareg question in Mali for more than 50 years and this is no coincidence,” adds former Malian Minister of Justice Mamadou Ismaïla Konaté. “The links are cultural, security but also economic, because Algeria is an essential supplier of foodstuffs throughout northern Mali.”

In February 2023, when tensions between the Malian transitional authorities and the signatory groups were already high, the Algerian president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, received a delegation of ex-rebels who had come to ask for help from Algeria. The latter accused the Malian government of dragging its feet regarding the implementation of the peace process.

In a confidential letter addressed to the Algerian mediators, Bamako denounced an “increasingly obvious collusion” between signatory movements and terrorist groups, as well as repeated violations of the agreement. The Malian authorities also criticized the international mediation led by Algeria, deploring that it had not “condemned these violations” nor “called to order” their perpetrators.

Mid-December, on the occasion of the end of Minusma’s mandate in Mali, Algeria reiterated a call to the various “Malian parties to renew their commitment” in this peace process “to respond to the legitimate aspirations of all components” of the population.

A message poorly received by the Malian authorities, now engaged in an open war once morest armed groups in the North.

“The resumption of Kidal marked the death sentence of the Algiers agreement,” analyzes Malick Konaté. “The Malian government no longer makes a difference between the signatory groups and the terrorists, unlike Algeria which maintains this distinction and maintains close ties with the rebels. This difference in assessment inevitably generates friction, all the more that several representatives of these groups, who fled from the Malian army, took refuge in Algiers.”

Read alsoIn Kidal, the Malian state is creating a “new community balance of power” to establish its power

Acute diplomatic crisis

In this context, the new consultations organized in December in Algeria with rebel groups Then visit to Algiers by Imam Mahmoud Dickoreceived on December 19 by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, have completed igniting the powder.

A leading figure during the demonstrations which led to the fall of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, this influential Malian religious leader is now at loggerheads with the military junta. In question, his criticisms of the “indefinite” duration of the transition or even his opposition to the constitutional referendum organized in June.

In reaction to these events, the Malian government criticized “unfriendly acts” as well as “interference in the internal affairs of Mali”. In particular, he blames his neighbor for meetings with the rebels without having involved him. Algeria considers, on the contrary, that it is its role to lead such consultations aimed at resuming dialogue, by being at the head of the Monitoring Committee of the peace agreement.

First summoned, the Algerian and Malian ambassadors in Bamako and Algiers have since been recalled to their respective countries “for consultations”.

“We can consider the reception of Imam Dicko by the Algerian president in the current context as a diplomatic blunder on the part of Algiers,” analyzes Mamadou Ismaïla Konaté. “But for their part, the Malian authorities overreacted by accusing their neighbor of interference, while the two countries have always worked together on diplomatic and military levels. The relationship between Algeria and Mali has never been weakened. found in such an impasse”, continues the former Malian minister.

“This is an unprecedented dispute that we absolutely must get out of. If it is really the Algiers agreement that poses a problem, then the Malian authorities must stop sidestepping and officially get out of it. But it is not by ousting the “Algeria that Bamako will re-establish a climate conducive to negotiations on the Tuareg question”, he concludes.

During his speech on December 31, Assimi Goïta also announced that a committee responsible for piloting the new “inter-Malian dialogue” would be set up within a month, while promising to continue the “fight once morest armed terrorist groups.

A dialogue already described as a “sham” by one of the spokespersons for the Tuareg rebellion, Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane. The latter ruled out any participation on Tuesday, criticizing “a way of pronouncing the definitive lapse” of the peace agreement.