Algeria’s Sahel Comeback: Reclaiming Influence in a Shifting Region

In a vital diplomatic shift, the chief of Niger’s army junta, General Abdourahamane Tiani, made a landmark consult with to Algiers in February 2026. This used to be his first legit go back and forth outdoor the borders of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), the brand new confederation shaped via Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso. The symbolism used to be potent: Tiani, who got here to energy in a 2023 coup, swapped his commonplace army fatigues for a standard white boubou gown throughout talks with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. This match is extensively noticed as a pivotal second in Algeria’s concerted effort to opposite a steep decline in its regional clout and counter increasing Moroccan affect within the Sahel.

Introduction: The Strategic Significance of a Single Visit

For a long time, Algeria situated itself as an indispensable energy dealer and safety spouse within the Sahel, a limiteless arid area south of the Sahara. Its affect used to be constructed on historic ties, shared borders, power assets, and a long-standing safety equipment. However, a chain of army coups in Mali (2020, 2021), Burkina Faso (2022), and Niger (2023) essentially altered the regional panorama. The new juntas, steadily antagonistic to former colonial powers and Western safety partnerships, coalesced into the AES, explicitly distancing themselves from Algeria’s conventional diplomatic and safety frameworks. This left a vacuum that rival Morocco has actively sought to fill. The February 2026 consult with via Niger’s chief to Algiers represents Algeria’s maximum high-profile strive to重新 have interaction with the Sahel’s new energy facilities and halt its perceived strategic retreat.

Key Points: Understanding Algeria’s Sahel Challenge

• Diplomatic Re-engagement: General Tiani’s Algiers consult with indicators a possible thaw and Algeria’s intent to discussion with the AES juntas.
• Historical Decline: Algeria’s affect waned after 2020 because of coups that introduced anti-establishment, AES-aligned governments to energy.
• Moroccan Rivalry: Morocco is exploiting Algeria’s tensions with Sahelian states, significantly via providing Atlantic port get admission to to landlocked AES participants.
• Symbolic Diplomacy: Tiani’s collection of conventional apparel over army uniform used to be a in moderation choreographed gesture of appreciate and new partnership.
• Strategic Imperative: Regaining Sahel affect is an important for Algeria’s nationwide safety, financial pursuits, and regional industry ambitions.

Background: Algeria’s Traditional Sahel Sphere

A History of Paternalism and Partnership

Post-independence Algeria cultivated deep, albeit steadily paternalistic, relationships with Sahelian neighbors. Its international coverage, formed via the legacy of its personal liberation battle, supported anti-colonial patterns and non-alignment. Algeria supplied diplomatic duvet, mediated conflicts (significantly within the Mali disaster of 2012-2013), and used to be a key safety spouse in opposition to jihadist insurgencies that surged after the 2011 Libyan disaster. Its huge intelligence functions and army enjoy have been central to regional operations just like the G5 Sahel Joint Force.

The AES Revolution and Strategic Isolation

The coups of 2020-2023 didn’t simply alternate governments; they modified alliances. The new army leaders in Bamako, Ouagadougou, and Niamey rejected what they termed “neo-colonial” safety pacts, together with the ones with France and, via extension, Algeria, which used to be noticed as aligned with Paris. They shaped the AES in September 2023, a sovereignty-focused bloc that explicitly sought new companions. Algeria, gradual to acknowledge those regimes and demanding in their seizure of energy, discovered itself diplomatically sidelined in its personal yard. Its conventional channels of affect have been severed.

Morocco’s Proactive Counter-Strategy

Rabat moved hastily. In overdue 2023, King Mohammed VI introduced a daring initiative to grant Sahelian states, specifically the landlocked AES participants, get admission to to Moroccan Atlantic ports. This used to be now not simply an financial be offering; it used to be a strategic masterstroke. It at once challenged Algeria’s geographic monopoly on north-south corridors and offered Morocco as a competent, investment-oriented spouse to the brand new juntas. For AES leaders in search of possible choices to Western and Algerian dependence, Morocco’s be offering held tangible attraction.

Analysis: The Geopolitical Chessboard

Algeria’s Motivations and Assets

Algeria’s power to revive affect stems from core nationwide pursuits:

• Security: Instability and jihadist process within the Sahel at once threaten Algeria’s 1,300+ km southern border. A cooperative Sahel is a buffer zone.
• Economic Corridors: Algeria envisions itself as a hub for trans-Saharan commerce and effort transit. Losing affect jeopardizes tasks just like the Algeria-Niger-Benin railway and gasoline pipeline proposals.
• Regional Leadership: As Africa’s greatest nation via space, Algeria aspires to continental industry, which is not possible with out Sahel hegemony.
• Countering Morocco: The Western Sahara dispute infuses all regional festival. A Moroccan-dominated Sahel is a strategic nightmare for Algiers.

Algeria keeps property: its measurement, army power, hydrocarbon wealth, and the iconic—if strained—social and tribal ties around the Sahara. Its state media and diplomatic community stay in depth.

The AES’s Position of Strength

The AES juntas grasp the initiative. They are unified of their rejection of Western safety help and their call for for sovereignty. They have effectively resisted global power and sanctions, with