Mali denounces Algeria’s interference in its domestic issues

Spokesman for the Malian government denounced at the UN in the strongest terms Algeria’s destabilization role in the Sahel and Algiers interference in Mali’s domestic affairs.

“We observe a grave interference in Mali’s domestic affairs… Mali is not an Algerian Wilaya (province),” said deputy prime minister and spokesman for the Malian government Abdoulaye Maïga in a speech at the UN General Assembly.

Maïga was reacting to an earlier speech in which Algeria spoke about Mali as if it was its backyard, seeking a role in the crisis in northern Mali in which it is a stakeholder.

Algeria has offered a rear base for the Azwad separatists and their Alqaida allies led by Iyad Ag Ghali.

Algiers also denounced what it called a targeting of civilians using drones by Malian forces in reaction to an onslaught by Azawad and terrorist fighters departing from Algeria which left dozens of deaths among the Malian army and their Wagner allies.

Maïga denied Malian forces have targeted civilians but warned that if Algeria decides to violate the sovereignty of Mali to back its separatist allies it will receive a painful response.

Since Mali left the Algiers-brokered agreement that put off a decades-long fight with Tuareg rebels, Malian forces have restored control on vast swathes of its restive south backed by Russia and Wagner armed men.

The Azawad fighters and their Al Qaeda allies had to seek refuge in southern Algeria.

Maïga deplored how Algeria turned the page on a long history of shared struggle against French colonialism when Bamako hosted the Algerian liberation movement.

He called the Algerian diplomats who kept issuing threats against Mali “diplomatic fanatics.”

The growing rift between Bamako and Algiers is reflective of the state of regional isolation suffered by Algeria under the military-civilian duo led by Tebboune and Chengriha.