Mali and Niger have renewed long‑standing accusations that Algeria is exporting terrorism into the Sahel by sheltering, enabling and indirectly sustaining armed groups that carry out attacks south of its borders.
Although Malian and Nigerien officials stopped short of explicitly naming Algeria this time during remarks at a regional security forum in Senegal on Monday, their statements closely echoed months of earlier, direct allegations by Bamako that Algiers has become a logistical and political rear base for terrorist and separatist groups operating in northern Mali.
“There are neighboring countries that are currently harboring terrorist groups, supporting terrorist groups, or frequently receiving hostile forces that carry out operations against us,” Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop told Reuters.
Security analysts say today’s Sahel terrorism is rooted in the spillover from Algeria’s 1990s civil war, arguing that militant networks defeated or displaced inside Algeria regrouped and migrated south rather than disappearing. Groups such as al‑Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) emerged directly from Algeria’s Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), itself a splinter of the Armed Islamic Group that fought Algiers during the “Black Decade”, and for years were led by Algerian nationals who shifted their operations into Mali and across the Sahara under military pressure at home.
Reports of connivance between Algerian security services and some terrorist groups in the Sahel abound.
Mali has repeatedly condemned at the UN Algeria’s support for terrorism, in formal government statements and in diplomatic correspondence following a sharp deterioration in relations last year.
The tensions stem largely from northern Mali, where terrorist groups and Tuareg‑led armed groups have fought the Malian state for more than a decade. Bamako argues that these groups benefit from porous borders and from Algeria’s permissive posture toward militants operating along its southern frontier.
In September last year, Mali’s Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maïga told the United Nations General Assembly that Algeria had transformed itself from a partner in counterterrorism into what he called an “exporter of terrorism” to the Sahel.
Those accusations intensified after Algerian forces shot down a Malian military drone near the border in late March, an incident Bamako described as a deliberate act aimed at protecting terrorist leaders targeted by Malian operations.
In response, Mali and its allies Niger and Burkina Faso jointly recalled their ambassadors from Algiers and issued a statement accusing Algeria of supporting terrorism.
Niger has repeatedly aligned itself with Mali in disputes involving Algeria.
Nigerien authorities supported Mali’s diplomatic retaliation following the drone incident and expressed solidarity with Bamako against Algerian-backed terrorism.
Niger’s military ruler, General Abdourahamane Tiani, has previously accused multiple foreign governments of sponsoring attacks against Niger, and Niamey has backed Mali in its standoff with Algeria, which is increasingly perceived by the Sahel as a destabilizing factor.
For now, the dispute over Algeria’s role highlights a widening fault line in West African security politics. The Sahel’s military rulers argue that terrorism cannot be defeated while what they see as permissive or destabilizing behavior by neighboring states continues unchecked.
