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Morocco is trying to mend diplomatic ties with Mali and Niger. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates, Nasser Bourita, met on Saturday, December 22 in Marrakech on the sidelines of the ministerial coordination meeting on the international initiative of King Mohammed VI to promote access of the Sahel countries to the Atlantic, with his Malian counterpart, Abdoulaye Diop. An initiative, launched by the Sovereign, during his speech on November 6. Diop's presence at the meeting is highly symbolic, given the recent tense episode between Algiers and Bamako.
The recent crisis gives Rabat an unbeatable chance to strengthen ties with the Sahelian country. France and Algeria, who had excluded the Kingdom in 2014 from the reconciliation process in this country, have lost their influence with the authorities who have ruled Bamako since the coup d'Etat of August 2020. Thus, the French army, present in Mali since Operation Serval, launched in January 2013, was forced by the military in power to leave the country in August 2022.
For the record, on December 16, 2014, Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Minister of Defense during François Hollande's five-year term, refused, in an undiplomatic tone, to grant Rabat a role in the reconciliation process in Mali. «We don’t have to have a discussion on this topic with so-and-so. There is an Algerian mediation, we support it», while responding to a question from weekly Jeune Afrique.
Mali and Algeria, on the verge of rupture
As for relations between Algiers and Bamako, they are on the verge of a breakdown. Indeed, on December 20, the Algerian ambassador was summoned by the Malian Foreign Minister to protest against «the recurring meetings, at the highest levels in Algeria, and without the slightest information or involvement of the Malian authorities, with on the one hand people known for their hostility to the Malian government, and on the other hand with certain signatory movements» of the 2015 agreement and «having chosen the terrorist camp».
Abdoulaye Diop's department affirmed that these meetings «constitute interference in the domestic affairs» of his country. The meeting comes the day after the audience that President Abdelmadjid Tebboune granted to Imam Mahmoud Dicko.
Relations between the influential cleric and the Malian military are tense. He had expressed his disagreement with the draft constitution which enshrines the principle of secularism of the State, adopted by 97% of the votes, during the referendum of June 18, 2023. Dicko had also denounced the postponement of the presidential elections, which were planned for February 2024. Algeria responded to the summoning of its ambassador to Bamako with a similar measure.
Two weeks ago, Radio Algérie accused, based on information from «sources close to the matter», the United Arab Emirates and Morocco «of creating a climate of tension between Algeria and the countries of the Sahel», in particular «Mali and Niger in order to sell the idea that it is Algeria that finances the destabilization of these two brother countries».
King Mohammed VI made two visits to Mali in 2013 and 2014.
