Algeria and Mali are rebuilding ties after a bitter rupture pushed relations to their lowest point in years.
The rift deepened in late 2023, when Mali’s ruling junta scrapped a 2015 Algiers-brokered peace accord.
Bamako accused Algeria of meddling in its internal affairs and sheltering rebel figures on Algerian soil.
Tensions boiled over in early April 2025, when Algeria’s military shot down a Malian drone near the border town of Tinzaouaten.
The incident triggered a full diplomatic break, with both nations withdrawing ambassadors and sealing their airspace to one another.
A partial thaw began in July, when Algiers and Bamako restored full diplomatic representation after roughly a year and a half of estrangement.
Ambassadors returned to their posts, and both countries reopened their skies to civilian and military air traffic.
This week, that cautious rapprochement reached its highest political level yet.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune received Mali’s Prime Minister, General Abdoulaye Maïga, in Algiers on Monday.
The one-day working visit followed an invitation from Algerian Prime Minister Sifi Ghrieb, issued on Tebboune’s instructions.
Maïga said the two nations shared a conviction that the Sahel should become “an oasis of peace,” free from outside domination.
He praised Tebboune’s counsel as “wise advice,” framing the visit as a step toward modernization and shared progress.
Analysts caution that old grievances, including disputes over border control and rebel sanctuaries, have not vanished.
Algeria is weighing how to preserve its regional influence as France’s presence recedes and Russia’s expands across the Sahel.
Mali, meanwhile, continues charting an independent security course alongside fellow junta-led states Niger and Burkina Faso.
Both governments appear to have concluded that continued estrangement carried costs neither could afford.
Whether Monday’s meeting marks a lasting reset, or merely a pause in a longer rivalry, remains to be seen.