Mali denounces again Algeria's interference in its internal affairs

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Republic of Mali has once again denounced in an official communiqué the persistent interference of the Algerian authorities in Mali's internal affairs.

Mali has strongly condemned Algeria's interference in its internal affairs and demands that it ‘redirect its energies towards resolving its own internal crises and contradictions, including in Kabylia, and stop using Mali as a lever for its international positioning’.

In the official note, the Malian Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the fact that Algeria, through its Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf, is constantly commenting on Mali's anti-terrorist strategy, and that it is also taking an active part in this issue, thus meddling in an internal policy that is so important for the Sahel country.

The official communiqué from the Malian foreign ministry refers to ‘Algeria's closeness and complicity with the terrorist groups destabilising Mali, to whom it has offered lodging and food, while controlling their criminal actions against the civilian populations of Mali and the Sahel’. 

‘It is clear that the undeniable successes of the Malian armed and security forces and the pressure exerted on the terrorist groups supported by Algeria do not sit well with some Algerian officials,’ the Malian Foreign Ministry pointed out. 

‘Faced with the Algerian authorities‘ undisguised sympathy for terrorist groups operating in Mali and the Sahel, the Ministry reiterates Mali's firm opposition to any form of Algerian involvement in its internal affairs,’ the Malian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. 

The official communiqué of the Malian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation is reproduced below:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation has received with dismay, through the press, the statements of H.E. Mr. ATTAF, Minister of State and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, commenting once again on Mali's counter-terrorism strategy.

The Algerian Foreign Minister's statements illustrate the content of Communiqué 064 of 25 January 2024, in which the Transitional Government already denounced Algeria's closeness and complicity with the terrorist groups destabilising Mali, to whom it has offered lodging and food, while controlling their criminal actions against the civilian populations of Mali and the Sahel.

It is clear that the undeniable successes of the Malian armed and security forces and the pressure exerted on the terrorist groups supported by Algeria do not sit well with some Algerian officials, nostalgic for a bygone era.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Mali expresses its deep concern at the persistence of certain Algerian authorities in carrying out acts of interference in the internal affairs of the Republic of Mali, marked by paternalism, condescension and contempt.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation condemns in the strongest terms this new interference by Algeria in the internal affairs of Mali, through a member of the Algerian Government, and recalls that the strategic choices of the fight against armed terrorist groups, supported by foreign state sponsors, are the exclusive competence of the sovereignty of Mali and the choices of the Confederation of Sahel States. In this respect, Mali neither asks for nor receives lessons from Algeria, which in the recent past has conducted its fight against terrorism in full sovereignty.

The Ministry therefore calls on Algeria to redirect its energies towards resolving its own internal crises and contradictions, including the Kabylie issue, and to stop using Mali as a lever for its international positioning.

In view of the Algerian authorities' undisguised sympathy for terrorist groups operating in Mali and the Sahel, the Ministry reiterates Mali's firm opposition to any form of Algerian involvement in its internal affairs, and will not allow any outside actor to pursue a hackneyed fireman-pyromancer strategy.

The Ministry reiterates Mali's determination to eradicate terrorism in all its forms, as part of the ESA Confederation with Burkina Faso and the Republic of Niger.