In mid-February, a high-level Algerian delegation led by Major General Abed Hallouz, Director of the country’s international cooperation agency, visited Niger’s capital Niamey, where he met the minister of foreign affairs and the governors of the Agadez and Zinder regions.
This visit came amid rapid developments in the region. Months after taking power in a coup, Niger’s new rulers had asked American forces to leave the country. This followed the withdrawal of United Nations and French forces from neighboring Mali in late 2023. Jihadist groups, Azawadi separatists and other ethnic armed formations have all grown in strength, exacerbating the sense of region-wide insecurity and the fragility of the situation at the border between Algeria and Niger.
General Abdourahamane Tchiani’s coup against President Mohamed Bazoum in late July 2023 had set alarm bells ringing in Algeria, which will need to act urgently if it is to achieve its key goals. These include:
• Preventing Niger from being drawn into Morocco’s orbit, especially after Niamey agreed with Rabat to take part in a Moroccan project to establish sea ports on the Atlantic Ocean serving several African countries.
• Guaranteeing to deploy Algerian forces to protect the section of the Nigeria-Algeria gas pipeline project that passes through Niger, security that will be acutely needed in light of the security situation, which has further deteriorated in the wake of the coup.
• Fulfilling Algeria’s pledge to make investments in Niger worth more than $300 million, in addition to its promises to finance the oil pipeline line through Niger.
Alongside all this, Algeria is aware of the risks posed by the presence of Wagner paramilitary forces and the strengthening of Russian influence on its southern borders (with Niger and Mali). Some 1,700 Wagner personnel are deployed in Tuareg areas of Mali near the Algerian border. The Russian paramilitary group also controls several former French and UN bases, and has started making concerted efforts to seize control of gold mines in the north and east of Mali. This is likely to lead to tensions that may deteriorate into armed clashes with the various tribal groups in the region, especially Arab and Tuareg coordination militias, who have more than 50,000 personnel—including 1,200 Tuareg soldiers who defected from the Algerian army, along with 6,000 Libyan Tuareg fighters.
