Algeria sends a sign of appeasement to Morocco after the coup in Niger
The coup d'état in Niger and its possible consequences have had repercussions throughout the region and in neighbouring countries. While the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is preparing a new extraordinary session to address the situation in the country, the states bordering Niger fear that instability could spread within their own territory.
This is why Algeria, which shares a border of almost 1,000 kilometres with Niger, is particularly "concerned" about the military uprising in the Sahelian nation and its possible regional effects. For this reason, no high-ranking Algerian officials have attended the summer university that Polisario Front leaders are organising in Boumerdès. "The Algerians had to cancel, at the last minute, the presence of high-ranking officials at this event", a Saharawi source told the Yabiladi media, who also affirmed that Algiers was trying to send a signal of "appeasement" to Morocco after the coup in Niger.
In 2009, the Algerian Committee of Solidarity with the Saharawi People inaugurated this summer educational centre in Boumerdès for Polisario leaders. Every year this meeting is attended by a strong presence of high-ranking Algerian officials. However, this edition - which runs until 14 August - did not include representatives of the central power in Algiers during the opening session.
In 2019, Algeria sent the speaker of the lower house of parliament, the Islamist Slimane Chenine, to represent Algiers at the meeting. The previous year, in 2018, it was the former secretary general of the FLN (National Liberation Front), Djamel Ould-Abbès, although this edition was marked by divisions at the top of the state, between supporters and opponents of former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika's fifth term project, as Yabiladi recalls. Likewise, in previous years, Algerian ministers and political party leaders have participated.
The decision not to send any high-ranking officials to the event follows recent statements by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to local media, in which he assured that "Algeria will never use force against its neighbours, whatever the conditions".
Morocco has also reached out to Algeria on several occasions, despite not maintaining diplomatic relations after the latter suspended them in August 2021. During King Mohammed VI's recent speech on the occasion of the Feast of the Throne, the Moroccan monarch offered a sincere and cordial dialogue to overcome differences, expressing his desire for "the return to normality and the reopening of the borders between two neighbouring countries and two brotherly peoples".
As he does every year, Mohammed VI called for a rapprochement with Algeria, despite the tension between the two countries. He also wanted to send a message of peace to his neighbour, assuring that neither Algeria, its leaders nor its people "will ever have to fear the wickedness of Morocco". "We also confirm to them all the value we attach to the ties of affection and friendship, to the exchanges and interactions between our two peoples," the monarch added.
