Following the coup in Niamey on July 26, Algeria has taken the moderate stance of supporting the overthrown president, Mohamed Bazoum, while refusing foreign intervention. This could allow Algeria to play a role in a diplomatic solution to the crisis. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune made his country's unambiguous offer as he spoke to the Algerian press on Saturday, August 5: "We are ready to help [the Nigeriens] unite."

A regional power, Algeria also neighbors Niger and Mali, with whom it shares deep strategic interests. It is also a critic of French interventionism in Africa. However, it continues to maintain good relations with the United States. The country appears to have the profile of a mediator acceptable to all parties. Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf's visit to Washington on Tuesday, where he met his counterpart Antony Blinken, could provide an opportunity to coordinate US and Algerian approaches to the Niger crisis. "There will be no solution without us," President Tebboune added. "We are the first ones concerned."

Algiers was quick to "forcefully condemn" the "coup attempt" in Niamey on July 26, urging "an end to this unacceptable attack on the constitutional order." Algeria takes the matter seriously as it maintains excellent relations with Niger's deposed president, an Arab who also has family links to Algeria. Since his election in February 2021, Bazoum had made two visits to Algiers, reflecting the two countries' desire to forge closer ties in the context of France's military withdrawal from the Sahel.

Rumblings of a possible operation by the armies of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to restore Bazoum to power in Niamey were received with hostility in Algiers. This would constitute a "direct threat to Algeria," said President Tebboune. "We categorically refuse any military intervention [because it would result in] the Sahel going up in flames."

The stability of Niger is a crucial issue for Algeria as the two countries share 1,000 kilometers of border in the heart of the Sahel-Saharan region, which is exposed to the risk of jihadism as well as to Tuareg identity claims. Beyond security concerns, Algiers has opted for economic integration with the Trans-Saharan-Gas-Pipeline project linking Nigeria to Algeria via Niger over a distance of 4,100 kilometers. The initiative, which is still at the draft stage, is all the more strategic for Algeria as it competes with an equivalent Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline project (6,000 kilometers crossing a dozen West African countries).

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