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President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, during an interview granted this week to the French daily Le Figaro, mentioned, without citing it, the Russian paramilitary group Wagner and its presence in the countries of the Sahel. A presence that he did not hesitate to criticize.
With our correspondent in Algiers, Fayçal Metaoui
Without citing the Russian Wagner group, President Tebboune felt that the money provided to this paramilitary organization would be more useful if it went to the development of the Sahel. ” The money that this presence costs would be better placed and more useful if it went to the development of the Sahel “says Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
This is the first time that Algiers has shown its annoyance with Wagner’s increasingly visible presence in the Sahelian countries, particularly in Mali.
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Officially, Algeria has always criticized the foreign military presence in countries south of its borders and pleaded for negotiated political solutions to crises.
Algerian diplomacy has been working for some time to revive the Mali Peace Agreement signed in Algiers in 2015.
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A presence in this country of armed men such as those of Wagner with imprecise objectives disrupts the establishment of the mechanisms for applying this Agreement.
Algiers, which maintains solid relations with Russia, did not fail to point out to Moscow the complications that Wagner’s presence in Mali, but also in Libya, can cause. Libya where there is still no solution to a conflict that has lasted for eleven years.