Rumors of military intervention in Niger sour relations between France and Algeria

2023-08-22 22:39:09

In France they speak without palliatives of a media campaign by Algeria against their interests in Africa. The Algerian media have spread the news in recent hours that the Elysée asked to fly over the airspace of the North African country “to attack Niger”. A request that the Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune would have opposed.

However, the French Army categorically denied the accusations. “There is absolutely no desire to attack Niger,” an officer told Le Figaro newspaper. France, according to this same source, had not even submitted any request in recent days to carry out a military flight.

But Algerian state radio assured on Monday night that “military intervention is imminent and the entire military apparatus is in motion” to reverse the military coup in Niger on July 26, which deposed President Mohamed Bazoum, a a close ally of France and the rest of the Western countries in the fight against jihadist terrorism in the Sahel.

A few hours before the broadcast, the Nigerien coup leaders had announced their intention to remain in power for the next three years and launch a political transition. Some plans that were rejected by ECOWAS.

According to the Algerian media, after Algeria’s refusal to fly over its airspace, the Élysée “headed for Morocco”, which “decided to respond favorably to the French request”, “proving once again that it remains a colonial state”. .

In this sense, bilateral relations between Paris and Rabat are still tense since the Pegasus scandal broke out towards the end of 2021. The Alaouite kingdom would have spied on French President Emmanuel Macron through the program of the Israeli company NSO Group. The Elysee’s decision to maintain an ambiguous position on the Western Sahara dispute has also alienated Rabat.

Still, the accusations are not new. The Algerian media close to the ruling party speak out daily against ECOWAS or against France, accusing both actors of wanting to set the Sahel on fire. The 2011 NATO intervention in Libya is often cited as a textbook case, in which the fall of dictator Muammar Gaddafi led to an unresolved political crisis, the intervention of other foreign forces and, above all, the proliferation of jihadist groups.

Since the uprising in Niger, Algeria has insisted that the only possible way out is a political solution. Tebboune himself has rejected any military intervention, although his diplomats are calling for Bazoum’s restitution.