US Think tank highlights self-serving flaws of Algeria’s Sahel foreign policy

Algeria’s self-serving approach towards the Sahel kept away from forging a stability and security partnership with the US, notes the United States Institute of Peace.

In a study, headlined “For Peace in the Sahel, Can the U.S. Work with Algeria?”, the US think tank notes that Algeria has failed to help the Tuareg and the central government in Mali reach a deal despite multiple attempts.

The paper points to critics who often describe Algeria’s mediation efforts in the Sahel as “designed to advance its own interests first.”

In this context, the author of the analysis Thomas M Hill proceeds to explain contradictions between the Algerian and the US approach in the region which augur ill for cooperation between the two countries in the Sahel, which has been plagued in recent months by snowballing military coups.

He starts by explaining the close ties between Russia and Algeria, a relation that is founded on Algeria’s status as one of the main clients of Russian arms in Africa.

Russia in turn is deeply engaged in the Malian mayhem through its Wagner militias that helped Bamako forces take the strategic Tuareg stronghold of Kidal a few days ago, marking the effective collapse of Algiers’ 2015 power sharing deal.

Algeria has kept silent since then, probably out of fear of angering its arms supplier.

“For the United States, the deepening presence of Russia and the Wagner Group is a direct threat to national security interests, specifically the U.S. drone operations run out of neighboring Niger,” says the analysis.

It also points to the real motives of Algerian diplomacy which relegates Sahel security stability to a second rank, while prioritizing support for its Polisario proxies, that seek to unsettle Morocco in the Sahara territory.

The author also mentions Algeria’s growing perception in the ECOWAS region as an unreliable and uncredible mediator as it seeks to achieve its own goals in exporting terrorism outside its borders and pressuring neighbouring countries to parrot its discourse on the Sahara issue.

While the US recognizes Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara, the author argues that any cooperation with Algeria in the Sahel would entail delink from the Sahara issue.

Algeria has also failed to mediate between the military junta in Niger and the ECOWAS.

“That unsuccessful attempt raises a question whether Algeria can be readily accepted as a neutral arbiter by Niger’s conflicting parties — or whether it still needs to cultivate that credibility,” it said.