DUBAI: Algeria has refused a French request to fly over its airspace for a military operation in Niger, state radio said late on Monday, after a July 26 coup in the West African nation that lies south of the Algerian border.
Algeria opposes any foreign military action in Niger and favors diplomacy to restore constitutional order, state radio said.
France has about 1,500 troops in Niger that were stationed there before last month’s coup. It is not clear what military operation Algeria was referring to, but France has not said it would intervene militarily to overturn the military takeover.
West Africa’s main regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), said last week said it had agreed an undisclosed “D-Day” for a possible military intervention if diplomatic efforts fail — an escalation that could further destabilize a conflict-torn and impoverished region.
On Tuesday, the African Union’s Peace and Security Council said in a communique that Niger had been immediately suspended from all African Union activities.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune voiced Algerian fears about an armed response early this month, saying “a military intervention could ignite the whole Sahel region and Algeria will not use force with its neighbors.”
The North African country worries about repercussions such as an influx of migrants into its territory, a government source familiar with the situation told Reuters.
“We are against the coup but we are against a military action that would worsen the situation in Niger and beyond in the Sahel,” the source who asked not to be named told Reuters.
French authorities did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
France’s military presence in West Africa has become increasingly tenuous amid a wave of coups in the Sahel region since 2020.
Its forces have been kicked out of Mali and Burkina Faso and anti-French sentiment has grown on the streets of Niger’s capital Niamey since the July 26 coup. Meanwhile, Russian influence in the region has grown.
Algeria has had difficult relations with France — its former colonial ruler — sparring over Sahel security and other regional issues, disputes over their shared history, French media coverage of Algeria and human rights issues.
Algeria refuses French request to fly over its airspace for military operation in Niger
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Algeria refuses French request to fly over its airspace for military operation in Niger
- Algeria opposes any foreign military action in Niger and favors diplomacy
Trial opens in Tunisia of NGO workers accused of aiding migrants
- Aid workers accused of assisting irregular migration to Tunisia went on trial on Monday, as Amnesty International criticized what it called “the relentless criminalization of civil society”
TUNIS: Aid workers accused of assisting irregular migration to Tunisia went on trial on Monday, as Amnesty International criticized what it called “the relentless criminalization of civil society” in the country.
Six staff members of the Tunisian branch of the France Terre d’Asile aid group, along with 17 municipal workers from the eastern city of Sousse, face charges of sheltering migrants and facilitating their “illegal entry and residence.”
If convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison.
Migration is a sensitive issue in Tunisia, a key transit point for tens of thousands of people seeking to reach Europe each year.
A former head of Terre d’Asile Tunisie, Sherifa Riahi, is among the accused and has been detained for more than 19 months, according to her lawyer Abdellah Ben Meftah.
He told AFP that the accused had carried out their work as part of a project approved by the state and in “direct coordination” with the government.
Amnesty denounced what it described as a “bogus criminal trial” and called on Tunisian authorities to drop the charges.
“They are being prosecuted simply for their legitimate work providing vital assistance and protection to refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in precarious situations,” Sara Hashash, Amnesty’s deputy MENA chief, said in the statement.
The defendants were arrested in May 2024 along with about a dozen humanitarian workers, including anti-racism pioneer Saadia Mosbah, whose trial is set to start later this month.
In February 2023, President Kais Saied said “hordes of illegal migrants,” many from sub-Saharan Africa, posed a demographic threat to the Arab-majority country.
His speech triggered a series of racially motivated attacks as thousands of sub-Saharan African migrants in Tunisia were pushed out of their homes and jobs.
Thousands were repatriated or attempted to cross the Mediterranean, while others were expelled to the desert borders with Algeria and Libya, where at least a hundred died that summer.
This came as the European Union boosted efforts to curb arrivals on its southern shores, including a 255-million-euro ($290-million) deal with Tunis.
