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Algeria’s focus on the Sahel


Algerian Lieutenant General Said Chengriha has visited Mauritania to meet with Lieutenant General Mokhtar Bellah Chaabane with a view to strengthening cooperation and gaining more influence in the region

The Sahel is a conflict zone where criminal gangs of various types and extremist terrorist groups operate, taking advantage of the lack of control and order in the countries of the region to roam freely through the territories and porous borders of the area. 

Countries close to the Sahel, such as those belonging to the Maghreb, notably Morocco and Algeria, are always attentive to what is happening there and try to strengthen security cooperation ties with other nations. 

Morocco, through the head of the Directorate General of National Security (DGSN), Abdellatif Hammouchi, has established close contacts with many different countries in the region and around the world to reinforce security mechanisms and control and surveillance networks in order to strengthen national security and control hotspots such as the Sahel. 

Algeria is also trying to maintain this dynamic, as demonstrated by the presence in Mauritania of Lieutenant General Said Chengriha, Chief of Staff of the Algerian army, who met with his Mauritanian counterpart, Lieutenant General Mokhtar Bellah Chaabane, to discuss the strengthening of cooperation and the joint security dossiers that the two countries have in place. 

This is the first visit by an Algerian military official at this level to Nouakchott, which marks a significant event, just after some diplomatic tensions between Algeria and Mauritania. 

The Algerian Ministry of National Defence stated in an official communiqué that Chengriha’s visit to Mauritania came at the invitation of Lieutenant General Mokhtar Bellah Chaabane, Chief of the General Staff of the Mauritanian armed forces.

This visit was an opportunity for the two sides to discuss issues of mutual interest in the wake of recent problems in diplomatic relations between the two countries due to Algeria’s accusations against Mauritania of establishing military relations with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), following mutual military visits in the context of military cooperation policies.

Analysts noted that this visit is important in terms of the military and security challenges facing Algeria, especially after the political rift between the Algerian state and Sahelian countries such as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, whose military juntas that now rule these countries after several coups have distanced themselves from Algiers. 

Mali, for example, has already announced the end of the national reconciliation agreement that Algeria has been sponsoring since 2015 and included the Arab nation on the list of countries with which cooperation is not recommended – as is the case with France and the United States – which has led to a serious political crisis. 

On the other hand, another country in the region, Niger, did have an important political rapprochement with Algeria this summer, which was staged with the visit to Algiers of Niger’s prime minister, Mohamed Lamine Zeine, together with the vice-president of the National Council for the Safeguarding of Mali, Salifou Modi. 

Algeria is a major military power in Africa, with a budget of 23 billion dollars earmarked for the armed forces and national defence, and is making this status count, with an eye on the threats in its border areas bordering the hot Sahel, a region that encompasses areas of countries such as Senegal, Gambia, Mauritania, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia.

In this scenario, Algeria, following military operations by the Malian army, supported by the Russian Wagner Group, approached the border strip under the pretext of pursuing armed separatist groups. Likewise, in recent weeks, Libyan Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s forces have moved closer to Algerian towns and strategic interests, generating tension. The town of Ghadames remains a major concern after Khalifa Haftar himself launched an operation to control the town near the border with Algeria and Tunisia.

Morocco enters the scene

On the other hand, analysts such as Al Arab point out that the contacts between Algeria and Mauritania have nothing to do with a strategy of confrontation with Morocco, since Nouakchott refuses to be manipulated by another country, something he demonstrated by refusing to participate in the tripartite Maghreb meeting that included Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, considering it a step towards destroying the Arab Maghreb Union. 

The convening of this meeting was seen by several experts as an Algerian formula to make Morocco uncomfortable, as the Moroccan kingdom is gaining prominence on the world international stage, and on the African stage in particular, thanks to its intense diplomatic activity, This has yielded positive results, such as the strong support of more than 100 countries for Morocco’s Autonomy Plan for Western Sahara and the backing of the Atlantic Africa Initiative, promoted by the Moroccan king, Mohammed VI, which seeks to facilitate access by African countries, mainly from the Sahel, to the Atlantic seaboard in order to boost the economy and trade of these countries. 

Mauritania remains neutral on the issue of Western Sahara, which is vital for Morocco in the defence of its territorial integrity. 

Morocco proposes a broad autonomy for Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty, respecting the resolutions of the United Nations (UN); a proposal that has the support of more than 100 countries, including nations such as the United States, France, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Israel and Spain, which consider it the most serious, credible and realistic way to resolve the Saharawi dispute. 

AFP

On the other hand, there is the proposal of the Polisario Front, which advocates the holding of a referendum on independence, but which faces problems, such as the need to draw up an official census of Sahrawi voters, and has less international support, including that of Algeria, Morocco’s great political rival in the Maghreb. 

In this case, Algeria would also seek to compensate for Morocco’s growing geopolitical influence in Africa and the world at large by trying to weave closer contacts, as in the case of Said Chengriha’s latest political movement in Mauritania.

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