Algeria shots itself in the foot by imposing air embargo on Mali
From a crisis to another, Algeria has entrenched its regional isolation. The recent imposition of a ban on all flights heading or coming from Mali, evidences the whimsical and vindictive approach to foreign policy that has characterized the newly recycled military regime in Algeria, led by the Chengriha-Tebboune duo.
Mali has responded with a similar flight ban, after it- together with its Sahel allies Burkina Faso and Niger- recalled their respective ambassadors to Algiers. The diplomatic tension came after Bamako lost a drone to an Algerian airstrike. Mali accused Algeria of backing terrorism in the region.
While Algeria’s flight ban may be directed to pressure Mali, it undermines Algiers ambitions for regional hegemony by reflecting an image of a rogue state willing to hurt its poor neighbors by unilateral actions.
The Algerian escalatory move sends warning signals to any African country it has been courting in recent years. These include Nigeria and Niger, to whom Algeria has been selling the mirage of a pipeline that would channel Nigerian gas to the Mediterranean through the restive desert.
Weaponizing air space and the economy further highlights Algeria’s unreliability as a trading partner.
The recent tension has indeed put the final nail on the trans-saharan gas pipeline as the Algerian regime indulges in describing the military authorities in the three Sahel states as putschists.
Algeria, with a President that has not set foot in a Sub-Saharan African country, has revealed its condescending attitude towards African neighbors.
The showdown between Algeria and its southern neighbors has vindicated Morocco which has not taken any escalatory move after it has suffered a series of hostile acts by Algiers from unilateral cutting of diplomatic ties, halt of gas flow, air space ban, instigating the armed Polisario separatists, imposing visa, harassing Moroccans on Algerian soil, warmongering and pots boycott.
With Libya, Algeria has rather stoked tension taking sides instead of bridging the gap between the eastern and western rivals.
As Algeria’s self-inflicted regional isolation deepens, so does its global seclusion. In the strongly worded statement to Sahel states, Algeria attacked the Wagner militias, which have been deployed in the three Sahel states to fight terrorist groups.
Following its failure to join the BRICS, Algeria has lost credibility as a rational actor. Tebboune once bowed to Putin expressing his wish to replace the USD and join the BRICS. Few weeks ago, his ambassador to Washington DC says “the sky is the limit” in cooperation with the US, a statement that has been interpreted as an act of repentance to avoid potential Trump sanctions for its role in acting in connivance with Iran and rogue regimes like Syria’s Bachar.
As the barrel price declines, so does Algeria’s voice under the leadership of a duo that has created a ring of tension instead of a ring of friends in Algeria’s immediate neighborhood. As its regional ties worsen, so does its perception as an unstable and unreliable political and economic partner.