Algiers reacts clumsily to Malian volley of green wood

Two communiqués with decisive overtones, in which Bamako denounced the 2015 Algiers Agreements and reeled off a string of grievances against the Algerian regime, accused of undermining Malian national unity.

While adopting a conciliatory tone, the communiqué issued by the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (published on January 26) was guilty of the gross blunder of addressing the Malian people directly, as if to warn them against their own government. 

"Algeria has a duty to inform the people of Mali. They know that Algeria has never failed to work for the implementation of the Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in Mali, resulting from the Algiers process, with sincerity, good faith and unwavering solidarity with brotherly Mali. 

 
The Malian people must also know and must be convinced that the long list of reasons given in support of the denunciation of the Agreement corresponds absolutely neither closely nor remotely to the truth or to reality", reads a communiqué that tends to arouse the ire of the Malian leaders. 

What duty to inform does Algiers have to take the liberty of addressing the population of a border country in order to convince it that its government is acting in bad faith? This is what the paragraph quoted above says.

Imagine, for a moment, this text signed by the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and addressed to the Algerian people. How would the regime in Algiers react? It would rightly cry scandal. In this case, it's legitimate to ask "is what is allowed for Algiers not allowed for others?"

In this communiqué, the Algerian authorities feign ignorance of Mali's transitional military government, setting themselves up as guardians of the Malian people. As one exiled Algerian journalist put it: "Having imposed themselves by force on the Algerian people, the Algerian generals are now seeking to impose their will on neighboring Mali. Quite simply, this is excessive hegemony.

Indeed, in the January 26 communiqué, the Algerian regime warns the Malian people against its own government, which it accuses of having "carefully prepared the ground for the abandonment of the political option in favor of the military option as a means of resolving the Malian crisis." 

Algerian leaders systematically rejected this kind of attitude from a neighboring or friendly country during more than a decade of civil war, opting instead for what they called the "eradication" of terrorism. Algeria also rejected the good offices of numerous mediators working to resolve the crisis with Morocco, just as it never took the slightest peace initiative between Morocco and the Polisario.

To refute Algiers' accusation that it was opting for the military option rather than politics, the President of the Transition and Head of State of Mali, Colonel Assimi GOITA, issued Presidential Decree N° 2024-0053 on the same day, January 26, "instituting the steering committee of the inter-Malian dialogue for peace and national reconciliation". 

This steering committee will be responsible for preparing and organizing the Malian dialogue (see document). A way of saying to Algiers, "we know how to dialogue amongst ourselves without the need for an intermediary".