Algeria and Russia are uniting to divide West Africa

News Snapshot:

The July 26 coup in Niger retains the potential for inciting both a continental African and international crisis. As a result of the coup, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has threatened to intervene to restore the previously elected government and Niger has responded equally truculently ensuring that tensions throughout the Sahel remain high. Apart from the regional potential for a crisis, the Niger government has detained France’s ambassador, raising the possibility of action against it. The possibility of a foreign, anti-Niger intervention apparently greatly disturbs Algeria, its neighbor to the north. Algeria, not least owing to its...