Algeria threatens Mali with ‘civil war’
Algeria has doubled down on violating the sovereignty of its neighbor Mali by addressing the Malian people directly, threatening them with “civil war,” in the latest episode of a diplomatic showdown that triggered Bamako to declare an Algeria-brokered peace deal null and void.
In a statement, the Algerian foreign ministry failed to respond to the accusations in a previous Malian statement announcing the end of the Algiers 2015 peace accords, which were supposed to lay the basis for a power-sharing peace deal with the armed Tuareg separatist rebels.
Mali accused Algeria of “hostile acts,” including hosting representations of Tuareg rebels, and said Algiers treated Mali as a backyard and violated its sovereignty in seeking to impose the now obsolete Algiers accord during a Non-Aligned Movement summit despite Mali’s objection. Bamako also accused Algeria of supporting sanctions against Mali and backing terrorism.
In response, Algeria issued a statement addressing the “Malian people” directly -instead of the Malian authorities- threatening an upcoming civil war, in total disregard for the sovereignty of the Malian government’s sovereignty.
The Malians have denounced Algeria’s double-speak and its incapacity to stand as a neutral and credible mediator, citing Algeria’s connivance with Tuareg separatist groups and terrorist leaders such as Iyad Ag Ghali.
The Malian government wondered what would have been Algeria’s reaction if Bamako received at the highest-level representatives of the Kabylie independence movement MAK?
It also denounced Algeria’s “condescendence” with Mali, whom Algiers views as its “backyard.”
As for terrorism, Mali recalled Algeria’s “hidden hand” in the spread of terrorism in the Sahel by Algerian groups such as the GSPC and AQIM.
The diplomatic crisis between the two countries was building up since Mali kicked out French troops and took military action against the heavily armed Tuareg rebels in the north.
Algeria, a military dominated state, is ill-positioned to give lessons to Mali on political transition and military rule, Malian analysts say.
An authoritarian country and rentier economy, such as Algeria, whose presidential elections’ turnout in key regions such as Kabylie was near zero has no lessons to give to its neighbors, Sahel observers say.
Algeria’s reaction to a Malian sovereign decision to abandon a peace accord that has never worked also reflects that Algeria’s mediation was more about self-serving and postponing implosion in northern Mali than about finding a lasting peace.
