Adnan Adams Mohammed
The Arab Emerate nation, Qatar, has brokered a peace deal between the Mali military junta and Algeria after a recent tension.
The tension arose when the Malian junta government expressed its anger at Algeria after its president invited and met with a high-profile religious cleric, Imam Mahmoud Dicko, known for having positions that contradict the junta’s policies.
Imam Dicko is generally seen by the junta as a political opponent, although, he has been tolerated in Bamako given his broad public appeal in the conservative movement.
“As a result of Qatar’s mediation, Algeria’s Ambassador to Mali returned to Bamako last week, a move likely to be reciprocated by Mali in the days to come”, The North Africa Journal report noted.
Algeria, the north African nation has had strong ties with the ethnic Touaregs in northern Mali, who are currently at war with the central government. Algeria has been in permanent contact with the Touaregs, given that it also has a sizeable Touareg population in the south and a lengthy border with Mali.
Qatar’s effort to ease tension between the two neighbors is largely interpreted as a way to prevent the UAE, Qatar’s competitor, from taking advantage of the incident to up its influence in the Sahel.
Qatar demonstrated its diplomatic skills in the Middle East crisis but it has also been quietly active in other regions, such as helping reduce tensions between Mali and Algeria.
The current head of state of Mali is interim president Assimi Goïta, who took power for a second time on 24 May 2021, after dismissing previous interim president Bah Ndaw in the 2021 coup d’état.
