Algeria - Mali: And suddenly, quarrels and resentments fall silent!

"The only fight that can be won is the duel that becomes a duo," said Souleymane Diamanka in 'Respond to Him with Water'. Algeria and Mali, yesterday's super-enemies, buried the hatchet in early July.

No more insults at the United Nations podium, no more attacks through the media. Now it's time for a thaw, for dialogue. The leaders of both countries have authorized the reopening of their respective airspaces to all civilian and military aircraft operating flights to and from Algiers and Bamako.

The Algerian ambassador to Bamako was received by Minister Abdoulaye Diop

On Monday, July 20, the Malian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdoulaye Diop, even received in audience the ambassador of Algeria in Bamako, Kamal Retieb, who was returning to the country after more than a year of diplomatic discord.

This courtesy visit is part of "the revitalization of cooperation and friendship relations between Mali and Algeria," according to a post published by Mr. Diop on his X account.

It must be said that relations between the two neighboring countries deteriorated after the two coups in Mali in 2020 and 2021. Algiers, which had played a central role in negotiating the 2015 peace agreement between Bamako and the armed groups in the North, saw its influence challenged by the new authorities, who accuse Algeria of interference.

Destruction of a Malian military drone in Tinzawaten

The crisis worsened in the spring of 2025 after the downing of a Malian military drone in Tinzawaten (a border area). Algeria claimed that the aircraft had violated its airspace. Mali, for its part, maintained that it was within its territory.

The incident led to the recall of ambassadors stationed in Algiers and Bamako, the reciprocal closure of airspaces and exchanges of accusations between Algiers and the countries of the Alliance of Sahel States (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger).

With the political thaw observed since the beginning of July, Mali and Algeria now seem to want to consolidate their bilateral cooperation on solid foundations such as mutual respect, reciprocity, and national sovereignty. So long, then, to the quarrels and resentments of the past.