Three military juntas discovered that sovereignty is sellable. What was traded for security reveals a model of statehood that no longer depends on Paris or Washington.
A first convoy of Algerian soldiers was seen in northern Niger this weekend, a week after Algeria’s Parliament approved the deployment of troops to the neighboring country. According to RFI, about sixty Algerian tankers transporting fuel and secured by Algerian soldiers crossed the border with Niger, where they were welcomed by members of the Niger Armed Forces. Algeria’s Parliament approved the deployment on October 25, paving the way for the country’s first military mission abroad since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Reports diverge on the convoy’s destination: RFI mentions the city of Agadez, while the Soufan Center says the convoy reportedly reached Arlit on October 30. Algerian Senator Belkacem Boulghiti said the troops would protect economic infrastructure and oil facilities belonging to Algerian companies, and that Algeria is “not sending our soldiers to wage war in Niger.” Algeria’s national energy company Sonatrach, the Nigerien government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation are jointly developing a 4,000-km pipeline to carry Nigerian gas through Niger and Algeria and onwards to Europe. Morocco is promoting a rival pipeline along an Atlantic route drawing on the same Nigerian gas reserves, and the United Arab Emirates has agreed to support the project financially and technically.
The rivalry between Algeria and Morocco is projecting further south, into the Sahel, the Middle East Eye points out. In the region, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, united in the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), are trying to diversify their partners as they distance themselves from several of their former Western allies, according to the outlet.
Algeria is to send troops to Niger, its first foreign deployment since sending forces to Egypt during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, the BBC reported. Algeria's upper house of parliament approved the move at an emergency session on Sunday, with 148 of 174 senators in favour, and the lower house backed it later, according to AFP. The troops are expected to protect energy facilities in northern Niger, near the Libyan border, including a planned pipeline that would carry Nigerian gas to Algeria. The timing and number of soldiers have not been announced.
Algeria's Council of the Nation, the upper house of parliament, approved on Sunday a proposal to deploy troops to neighbouring Niger to protect energy facilities, TRT World reported. A senator who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity said 148 of the 174 seats voted in favour, and the lower house was expected to vote on the proposal later on Sunday. Al Jazeera reported the approval was unanimous. According to TRT World, any deployment abroad would be Algeria's first such military operation since it sent troops to support Egypt during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The proposal is linked to the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline (TSGP), which would carry natural gas from Nigeria through Niger and Algeria to European markets.
Twelve people were killed in an attack on buses in northern Niger, according to Xinhua. The attack on two buses between Arlit and Agadez left at least eleven dead on October 20, including one soldier among the victims, according to the Panafrican Press — the two sources’ figures differ and stand as attributed.
Burkina Faso's justice ministry said Tuesday that the junta ruling the country reinstated the death penalty, abolished in 2018, following a unanimous vote by the unelected legislature, according to AFP, in a text republished by Nampa. The new penal code reintroducing capital punishment “aims to strengthen public order, consolidate the nation's fundamental values and guarantee security for people and property”, the ministry said.
An attack by militants affiliated with the Islamic State group killed 48 people in the Ménaka region of eastern Mali over the weekend, a lawmaker told The Associated Press (AP). Moussa Ag Acharatoumane, a Tuareg leader and member of the National Transitional Council, said fighters from the Islamic State in Sahel Province (ISSP) attacked from Sunday night into Monday morning, and the casualties included children and elderly people.
Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, three junta-ruled Sahel states, on Saturday resumed dialogue with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the regional bloc they withdrew from more than 18 months ago, according to France 24. The two sides agreed to establish one joint working group that will develop a cooperation framework agreement to guide future relations between ECOWAS and the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), according to the BBC. The first session of the ministerial meeting of the dialogue on cooperation between ECOWAS and the AES Confederation took place in Dakar, Senegal, on 17 October 2026, according to the final communiqué published by the bloc.
Gunmen on motorcycles killed at least 40 civilians in Mali, attacking camps housing mainly members of the Daoussahak community, according to security and community sources cited by The Hindu. Hindustan Times reported more than 40 civilians killed in the same episode, also attributing the toll to security and community sources.
Human Rights Watch said in a report published on Monday that the Malian military, armed groups and insurgent forces are committing grave laws-of-war violations while international organizations and governments “largely stand by”, AllAfrica reported. The organization urged the African Union’s Peace and Security Council to “urgently take action to prevent further atrocities” in the west African country.
Malian forces and the Russian Africa Corps carried out 47 drone strikes that killed 94 civilians between April and August, compared with 22 strikes and 44 deaths in the same period a year earlier, in attacks described as apparently indiscriminate, including the August 19 attack on a cattle market in Bandiagara that killed six men, according to data from the ACLED monitor cited in a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, in a Times of India report.
An eruption of crude oil and gas in Niger was classified by the Ministry of Petroleum as an environmental incident of exceptional gravity, characterized by the projection of large quantities of crude oil and gas to more than ten meters high, according to Le Monde. According to the ministry, the eruption, the first of its kind in the country, occurred on September 25 in Niger’s eastern desert, caused no deaths, but two employees were hospitalized and treated for injuries. The incident took place at the Goumeri W8 well, in the Agadem oil block, about 1,700 km from Niamey, operated by CNPC Niger Petroleum S.A., a local subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).
Mali’s army, supported by Russian paramilitary forces, re-entered the northern town of Kidal, forcing Tuareg separatists to withdraw, according to Deutsche Welle. The Azawad Liberation Front said it decided to carry out a strategic and controlled withdrawal from Kidal, without direct fighting, citing disproportionate use of air power by Russian mercenaries of the Africa Corps. Mali’s transitional government said, in a statement read on state TV, that the retake was carried out by air and ground forces with the support of Russia’s Africa Corps, according to the Associated Press.
The Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) announced a strategic and controlled withdrawal of its forces from the city of Kidal, in northern Mali, according to AFP, in a text republished by Arab News. Kidal had been captured by the Tuareg separatists in April, alongside allied jihadists, in attacks aimed at weakening Mali’s junta rulers. Mali’s armed forces announced large-scale operations in the region.
Algeria sent fighter jets to Niger in late August to help thwart a coup attempt in Niamey, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said, according to Al Jazeera. Algeria’s Defense Ministry said that two patrols of Su-30 jets landed at Niamey airport, accompanied by a tanker, at the request of Nigerien authorities, according to AeroTime.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow expects the national leaders of the Sahel to attend the Russia-Africa summit, scheduled for 28 and 29 October in Moscow, according to the state news agency TASS. Russia’s foreign ministry says the dialogue with the Confederation of Sahel States is moving fast and cites the consultations held on 8 July in Niamey.
Bamako suspends transit agreement with Algeria