Diplomatic Rift Between Morocco and Algeria Threatens Stability in North Africa and Sahel

With the end of the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline, "the rupture is definitively consummated between Algeria and Morocco," notes Moussaab Hammoudi during his intervention on RT France, analyzing the conflict between the two countries around the theme: "Algeria-Morocco: towards a new war of the sands?". According to him, there have been a series of ruptures between the two countries, security problems, etc. "The only moment of salvation was in 1987 when there had been a rapprochement," recalls the academic, thus referring to the meeting between the late King Hassan II and the former Algerian President Chadli Bendjedid, and the exchange of prisoners.

What about the impact of the breakdown between the two neighboring countries? Moussaab Hammoudi sees the weakening of North Africa. "It is becoming more and more a risk zone. Precisely, it is the neighbors, in particular Libya and the Sahel zone, who will pick up the broken pieces," he analyzes. "Libya is trying to find its way to stability, as best it can, the path is quite difficult. To succeed, it must count on the neighborhood: the countries of North Africa. Except that now to face the competition of the international powers, it can count neither on Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia as a single bloc. That is to say there is no neighborhood," explains the political science researcher.

According to him, Libya will therefore be left to its own devices. "It will be subject to international pressures, the power struggles between the medium forces that are trying to be more expansionist. Libya finds itself in a bad position," he continues. As for the Sahel, Moussaab Hammoudi thinks that it will weaken further because the data is changing. He mentions the small French withdrawal. The number of French troops deployed in the Sahel will drop from 5,100 to 2,500 before 2023. "There is also the Turkish presence, a potential Russian presence. So the area will once again be in the dark. It pays the price because these are weakened regimes, regimes that have no citizen base," concludes the academic.