Algerian soldiers in Niger: Algiers eyes the former Barkhane base, France must rethink its place in the Sahel

It is a break few observers saw coming. On Sunday, October 25, both chambers of the Algerian Parliament unanimously approved sending units of the People's National Army to Niger, Reuters and AFP report. If the deployment goes ahead, it will be the first official operation by Algerian soldiers outside the country's borders since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

The facts

According to Reuters, the Algerian units are to be stationed at Madama, in northern Niger, near the Libyan border. The site is heavy with symbolism: it is a former forward base of the French Operation Barkhane, as the specialist website Zone Militaire points out, drawing on reporting by Jeune Afrique. A Nigerien security source quoted by Reuters says, however, that no soldiers have yet been officially deployed. Neither the number of troops nor the timetable has been made public, Agence Ecofin notes.

The legal basis has existed since the 2020 constitutional revision. As Al Jazeera explains, Article 91 allows the president to authorise sending troops abroad, provided two thirds of the members of each chamber agree. Sunday's vote is therefore the first use of this option for a bilateral operation.

This green light crowns a rapid rapprochement. According to Reuters, Niger's Defence Minister, Salifou Mody, travelled to Algiers on October 20, where a military cooperation protocol was signed, according to AFP, without its content being published. In August, Algiers delivered four helicopters to Niamey, then sent combat aircraft after an attempted mutiny within the Nigerien army, AFP reports. In early October, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune stated that Algeria would defend Niger against threats to its stability.

The turnaround is spectacular. Algiers had condemned the 2023 coup in Niamey. In 2025, after the Algerian army destroyed a Malian drone near the border, Niger recalled its ambassador, Reuters recalls. Niger's head of state, General Abdourahamane Tiani, then visited Algiers in February 2026.

The positions at stake

Algiers presents the operation as defensive and economic. Quoted by the AP news agency and picked up by Al Jazeera, Senator Belkacem Boulghiti insists that the aim is not to fight:

We are not sending our soldiers to wage war in Niger — Belkacem Boulghiti, Algerian senator

According to him, the goal would be to protect Algeria's economic and strategic interests, in particular its oil facilities. Reuters recalls that the state company Sonatrach signed a production-sharing agreement in 2022 in the Kafra region, and that it is taking part, with Niger and Nigeria, in the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline project, intended to carry African gas to Europe. Researcher Abdellah Akir, interviewed by AFP, sees it as a major shift in Algeria's defence doctrine, designed to protect the country's strategic depth.

This choice also has its critics and its grey areas. Niger is ruled by a junta that came to power in a coup, allied with Mali and Burkina Faso within the Alliance of Sahel States. According to Zone Militaire, the summer mutiny was put down with the help of the Africa Corps group, which is linked to the Kremlin. An Algerian army stationed in the north of the country would therefore, in practice, operate alongside a Russian presence. Finally, the defence agreement has not been published, which leaves unanswered the question of the rules of engagement should armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State, active in Niger, attack the facilities under protection.

The analysis

For France, the picture is a harsh one. Madama, which our soldiers held for years, will soon host another army. But nostalgia would be a poor guide. The French withdrawal from Mali, Burkina Faso and then Niger, completed at the end of 2023, showed the limits of a military presence that was not matched by a political project shared with the populations. The United States also left Niger in 2024, Al Jazeera recalls.

It would be just as wrong to see the Algerian arrival as a mere threat. A neighbour that shares nearly 1,000 kilometres of border with Niger, according to AFP, and that paid dearly for Libyan instability has legitimate reasons to want to secure the Sahara. An Algerian presence may also limit the one-on-one relationship between Niamey and Moscow. A real risk remains: that securing pipes and wells takes precedence over protecting civilians, and that the legitimacy of a military government not chosen at the ballot box is strengthened without any democratic counterpart.

Europe has a direct interest in this matter. The Trans-Saharan pipeline targets its markets. Migration routes run through northern Niger. It cannot remain a spectator of a reshaping that is taking place without it, nor simply deplore Russian influence.

Conclusion

France and its European partners would do well to acknowledge this new Algerian role rather than endure it. A Franco-Algerian security dialogue on the Sahel, backed by the African Union and the United Nations, and European aid conditional on respect for human rights and a timetable for a return to civilian rule, would be more useful than posturing. The question remains open: will Paris be able to speak to the Sahel in some other way than through its lost bases?

Article written with the help of artificial intelligence.