Tensions between Algeria and Mali have escalated since early April when Algeria said it shot down a Malian drone that strayed into its airspace. ALGERIA MINISTRY OF DEFENSE
A Malian drone shot down over the border in Algeria has escalated tensions between the two countries as they take different approaches toward Tuareg groups living along their shared border.
Algerian forces shot down the Turkish Akinci drone in early April after it crossed into Algerian airspace near the border community of Tin Zaouatine, a remote town deep in the Sahara that is a base for Tuareg rebels fighting Mali’s ruling junta. Malian officials claim the drone crashed 10 kilometers inside their border.
Tin Zaouatine was where Tuaregs in July 2024 killed 47 Malian soldiers and 84 Russian mercenaries belonging to the former Wagner Group, now known as Africa Corps, who fought with Malian forces.
The drone dispute is the latest escalation in tensions between Algeria and Mali, which began with Mali’s coups in 2020 and 2021. Relations deteriorated when Mali’s military rulers invited Russian mercenaries into the country in 2021 to help fight Tuareg rebels, whom Mali has labeled as terrorists.
Experts believe Mali hosts 1,000 to 1,500 Russian mercenaries. The junta calls the mercenaries trainers, but as shown in Tin Zaouatine, they frequently join the military in military operations.
Analyst Constantin Gouvy with the Clingendael Institute told Al Jazeera that Russian mercenaries’ strategy against suspected terrorists in Mali features “wanton violence against civilians.”
Algeria opposes Mali’s use of Russian mercenaries and the junta’s decision to treat the Tuaregs as terrorists. Algeria worries that Mali’s armed confrontations with Tuaregs in the Tin Zaouatine area — confrontations often made worse by the brutality of Russian mercenaries — could lead the fighting to expand into Algeria, which has its own Tuareg population.
Before the Malian junta overthrew its government, Algeria spent more than a decade mediating between the democratically elected Malian government and Tuareg rebels. Those negotiations produced the Algiers Accords in 2015. Mali’s ruling junta withdrew from the accords in 2023. It accuses Algeria of harboring the same Tuareg groups the junta is fighting.
Algeria recently deployed troops along its border with Mali to guard against infiltration by armed militants coming from Mali and its neighbors in the Alliance of Sahelian States (AES), Burkina Faso and Niger.
Mali called the destruction of the drone premeditated. In a joint statement, AES nations said Algeria’s action against the reconnaissance drone “prevented the neutralization of a terrorist group that was planning terrorist acts against the AES.”
“AES leaders’ council sees the shooting down of [a] Malian military operated drone as hostile against all members of AES and as treacherous action tending in some way to foment terrorism and destabilize the region,” Malian Foreign Minister Mali Abdoulaye Diop said in a statement.
In response to the drone incident, Mali and its AES allies pulled their ambassadors from Algeria. Algeria followed suit. A few days later Algeria and Mali closed their airspace to each other.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) called for calm amid the rising tensions between Algeria and Mali. Mali and its AES allies left ECOWAS in January, but ECOWAS nations that border the AES remain on alert as violence permeating the Sahel threatens to spread south.
ECOWAS member states urged Algeria and Mali to “de-escalate the tension, foster dialogue and use regional and continental mechanisms to settle differences.”
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