Sahel alliance recalls ambassadors from Algeria after the downing of a Malian drone

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — A military alliance between Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger withdrew their respective ambassadors from Algeria in response to the downing of a Malian drone this week, the group said late Sunday.

The Alliance of Sahel States, which goes by its French acronym AES, blamed Algeria on social media for the drone's downing and condemned it as an “irresponsible act” that violated international law.

The act was "contrary to historical relations and fraternal relations between the peoples of the AES Confederation and the Algerian people,” the group said.

Malian Prime Minister Gen. Abdoulaye Maiga, in a statement on the Malian Foreign Ministry's social media, denied claims by the Algerian government that the drone had violated Algeria's airspace by over 2 kilometers (1.2 miles). He claimed that “this action proves, if proof were needed, that the Algerian regime sponsors international terrorism.”

Mali in the statement also summoned the Algerian ambassador, withdrew from a 15-year-old regional military group that includes fellow AES member Niger, and will file a complaint with “international bodies” about the incident.

The development comes as tensions are on the rise between Algeria and its southern neighbors, including Mali.

After coming into power, the juntas in the three AES countries left the Economic Community of West African States, the nearly 50-year-old regional bloc known as ECOWAS, and created their own security partnership, the Alliance of Sahel States, in September last year.

Some analysts described it as an attempt to legitimize their military governments amid coup-related sanctions and strained relations with neighbors.

Rida Lyammouri, a Sahel expert at the Morocco-based Policy Center for the New South, said the latest war of words was unlikely to escalate beyond that. He doubted the Malian government's ability to conduct a thorough investigation because the crash "took place in an area it doesn’t control, and what remains of the drone has been recovered by groups opposed to the government.”

"That being said things are unlikely to escalate beyond the communication war. Mali, and other AES members would not engage militarily against Algeria, and vice versa. This will most likely only further existing diplomatic tensions at the moment,” continued Lyammouri.

Algeria once served as a key mediator during more than a decade of conflict between Mali’s government and Tuareg rebels. But the two countries have grown apart since a military junta staged coups in 2020 and 2021, putting military personnel in charge of Mali's key institutions.

Algeria has denounced the direction that Mali’s new government has taken and its expanded efforts to quash rebellion in historically volatile parts of northern Mali. Afraid of the conflict spilling over the border, Algerian officials have denounced Mali’s use of Russian mercenaries and armed drones near Tin Zaouatine, a border town in the north were the drone was found.

The Malian government did not recover the drone and videos seen on social media, posted by northern rebels, show them in possession of the remains of a Turkish made Akinci drone manufactured by Baykar downed in Tin Zaouatine. Mali purchased at least two from the Turkish company last year and has used them against armed separatists as well as fighters linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

Algeria has one of Africa’s largest militaries and has long considered itself a regional power but military leaders in neighboring Mali and Niger have distanced themselves as they’ve championed autonomy and sought new alliances, including with Russia.

From left, Niger Foreign Minister Bakary Yaou Sangare, Mali's Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Burkina Faso Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean Marie Traore attend a joint news conference following a meeting of Russian foreign Minister with foreign Ministers of the Confederation of Sahel States in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov, Pool)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The United Arab Emirates argued at the UN’s top court on Thursday that it has no jurisdiction to rule on a claim of genocide lodged by Sudan.

The UAE told the judges at the International Court of Justice that the allegations the country is breaching the genocide convention by arming and funding the rebel paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces were a misuse of the institution.

Sudan wants The Hague-based court to issue emergency orders, known as provisional measures, including telling the UAE to do all it can to prevent the killing and other crimes targeting the Masalit people.

“The idea that the UAE is somehow the driver of this reprehensible conflict in Sudan could not be further from the truth,” said Reem Ketait, a senior official at the UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She described the case as "the most recent iteration of the applicant’s misuse of our international institutions as a stage from which to attack the UAE.”

Both Sudan and the UAE are signatories to the 1948 genocide convention. The United Arab Emirates, however, has a caveat to part of the treaty which legal experts say makes it unlikely that the case will proceed.

“The ICJ has previously said that this kind of reservation is allowed and is a barrier to a case going forward. The court is most likely to say the same thing in this case, meaning that this case will not go forward,” Melanie O’Brien, an associate professor of international law at the University of Western Australia and an expert on the convention, told The Associated Press.

Sudan descended into a deadly conflict in mid-April 2023 when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary rebels broke out in the capital, Khartoum, and spread to other regions.

Both the Rapid Support Forces and Sudan's military have been accused of abuses.

The UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula and a U.S. ally, has been repeatedly accused of arming the RSF, something it has strenuously denied despite evidence to the contrary.

Conflict Observatory, a monitoring group which is funded by the U.S. State Department, has identified aircraft it says carried UAE arms transfers to the RSF. Those flights went through Maréchal Idriss Deby international airport in Amdjarass, Chad. The UAE says the purpose of the flights was to support a local hospital.

In January, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that RSF leader Mohammad Hamdan Daglo Mousa, also known as Hemedti, had been targeted for sanctions along with seven RSF-owned companies in the United Arab Emirates. That came as the U.S. declared the RSF rebels are committing genocide.

The war has killed more than 24,000 people and driven over 14 million people — about 30% of the population — from their homes, according to the United Nations. An estimated 3.2 million Sudanese have escaped to neighboring countries.

The Sudanese Armed Forces have broadly retaken Khartoum from the RSF. Last month, the military said it had recaptured Khartoum’s international airport.

A burned military vehicle sits at Khartoum international airport a day after it was recaptured from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in Khartoum, Sudan, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo)