Algeria Fortifies The Mali Front To Counter French Maneuvers

The signatories to the agreement for peace and reconciliation in Mali met in Algiers over two days, and Algeria obtained a commitment to implement the provisions emanating from the Algerian track and full respect for the decisions that will be taken in this regard as well.

Algeria, in its capacity as the supervisor of the international mediation leadership and head of the follow-up committee of the agreement to restore peace and stability in Mali, was keen to gather the parties to the crisis in Mali and urged them to expedite the arrangement of the internal house, by accelerating the implementation of the agreement for peace and reconciliation in Mali emanating from the path of Algeria to block foreign manoeuvres, and the meeting was organized by the Algerian special envoy in charge of the Sahel and Africa region, Boudjemaa Delmi.

The Malian delegation that attended the Algiers meeting included the Minister of National Reconciliation, Colonel Ismail Ouaghi, and representatives of the movements that signed the Algiers Agreement. They discussed issues related to ways to facilitate the rapid implementation of the provisions of the Algiers Agreement. The attendees committed themselves to continue the discussions upon their return to Bamako to raise all the outstanding issues that have so far obstructed the realization of the peace path and provide the best conditions for holding the next session of the Follow-up Committee.

The peace agreement was signed in 2015 in Algeria, but the Malian parties did not commit to its implementation despite repeated Algerian attempts, which often ran into obstacles, attributed by those familiar with this file, to the French military presence in this country, which played a destabilizing role instead of the role that it came for it, which is to maintain security, by supporting some parties at the expense of others.

Both Algeria and the Malian government insist on the necessity of bringing together the parties to the crisis in this country to settle this file through dialogue, which resulted in items recommended by the international community, led by the United Nations, while France goes to impose a military solution, taking advantage of the Barkhane Operation that it launched to impose its choice on the Malian people, under the pretext of fighting terrorism.

While the Malian parties were meeting in Algeria, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the National Community Abroad, Ramtane Lamamra, criticized what France is doing in Mali.

He said, in statements made to Russia Today on Saturday; “We consider France’s statements regarding Mali as an interference in its internal affairs and we expressed our solidarity with Mali. Algeria rejects any military presence in Africa, and we recognize the right of friendly countries to make arrangements to defend themselves”.

It is clear from the words of the head of the Algerian diplomacy that it is directed explicitly to France, which seems to be still seeking to play the role of the guardian of the former colonies, which was behind the statement of the President of the Republic who, in his last meeting with the media, called on Paris to forget that Algeria was a former colony.

Mali’s Prime Minister Choguel Maiga accused the elements of the French army on Malian soil of forming and protecting extremist armed groups in the northeastern regions of his country and close to the southern border of Algeria and preventing the Malian army from reaching them, which he described as dangerous and contradictory to the mission of the French troops under the cover of the United Nations’ mission for restoring stability and security in Mali.