ALGIERS: Algeria said Friday it will oppose what it called a “shameless” complaint from Mali to the UN’s top court accusing it of downing a Malian army drone over Malian soil.
Algiers has said the drone was over its soil when it was hit earlier this year.
The foreign ministry described the complaint, which the International Court of Justice confirmed receiving on Friday, as “clearly an attempt to exploit this august judicial body of the United Nations.”
It said it will notify the court of its “refusal of this procedural ploy,” describing Mali’s move as “too crude to be credible.”
The ICJ said the case will not proceed “unless and until Algeria consents to the Court’s jurisdiction in the case.”
Mali said it had complained to the court after Algerian forces violated its airspace and downed the army drone in a “hostile act” on the night of March 31-April 1.
Algeria says its defense ministry radar data “clearly establish the violation of Algeria’s airspace” by the Malian reconnaissance drone.
The case has sparked a region-wide diplomatic spat, with Mali and allies Burkina Faso and Niger withdrawing their ambassadors from Algiers and Algeria responding in kind.
Further fallout has seen Bamako and Algiers mutually close their airspace to one another, and Mali has accused its northern neighbor of helping to foment regional “terrorism.”
In January last year, Mali’s ruling junta announced the termination of a 2015 peace accord with Tuareg rebels which had been mediated by Algiers, citing Algerian “hostility.”