Lara Marlowe: War against jihadism bonds France and Algeria

The leaders of France and Algeria doubtless rejoiced in the reported killing of Algerian jihadist Mokhtar Belmokhtar when they met in president Abdelaziz Bouteflika's palace on Monday afternoon. Belmokhtar, who was allied with al-Qaeda, led the 2013 seizure of a gas plant in the Algerian desert, in which 38 foreign hostages were killed.

The fight against jihadism in north Africa and the Sahel – where Arab north Africa meets black Africa at the southern edge of the Sahara – has created a bond between Paris and Algiers, at a time of exceptionally good relations.

François Hollande’s eight-hour trip to Algiers was his second since taking office. During his first visit as president, in December 2012, he recognised “the suffering inflicted” on Algeria by France in the 1954- 1962 war of independence.

Hollande often notes that he was born the year that war started. His conservative father was a strong supporter of l'Algérie française. Hollande did an eight-month student internship in Algiers in 1978.

The ageing generals who fought the war of independence may still distrust the French, but the joint battle against radical Islam has brought military co-operation to unprecedented heights.

Defence minister Jean-Yves Le Drian keeps Algiers informed of developments in the French deployment in Mali and Algeria provides intelligence on jihadists such as Belmokhtar, who move freely across the border between Algeria and Mali.

Algeria has also granted overflight rights and refuels French military aircraft.

Opposed Libyan action

Algiers never ceases reminding Paris that it opposed the British, French and US initiative that overthrew the Libyan dictator Muammar Gadafy.

Libya

is now in chaos, with rival governments more interested in fighting each other than the most extreme group of all, Islamic State (IS).

In regional terms, Algeria appears to be a bulwark of stability, slowing the spread of jihadism through its draconian measures.

Asked whether IS could implant itself in Algeria, prime minister Abdelmalek Sellal told Le Parisien newspaper: "We fought this disaster alone in the 1990s, and we won." Sellal referred to the "black decade" when some 200,000 Algerians died in a civil war between the army and Islamist rebels.

But Frenchman Hervé Gourdel was decapitated by a group affiliated with IS in Algeria last September.

“Remember that the perpetrators of this crime were neutralised,” Sellal said. “The Algerian state never backs down in the face of terrorism.”

Despite its apparent external strength, Algeria is undermined from within by the repressive, secretive rule of rival clans. Meanwhile, president Bouteflika (78) has been confined to a wheelchair since suffering a stroke in 2013.

Power void

There’s “an uncontestable void in power,” the former prime minister and failed challenger to Bouteflika,

Ali Benflis

, said when founding his own political party last weekend.

“Our state is no longer embodied, abroad or domestically,” he said. “The president hasn’t made a speech since May 2012. No one knows who takes decisions. We’re in a real crisis of the regime.”

The collapse of petrol prices – from $140 per barrel to the current $60 – is depleting the public fund the government established to distribute some oil wealth. If cash reserves run out (in three to four years at present rates), the government may no longer be able to buy social peace with subsidies on milk, flour, wheat, oil, sugar, water and fuel.

Political scientist Mohammed Hachemaoui calls president Bouteflika's fourth term "the mask behind which hides an authoritarian, neo-liberal counter-revolution orchestrated by the deep state".

This "deep state", comprised of largely unseen but powerful forces in the army, intelligence services and oil and gas industry, "is the elephant in the room that nobody wants to see", Hachemaoui told La Croix newspaper. "With his visit, François Hollande gives it international recognition."

When the Algerian military cancelled free elections in 1992 to prevent the Islamic Salvation Front coming to power, then French president François Mitterrand regretted the coup, saying Islamist rule would have been "an interesting experiment".

The intervening years have brought al-Qaeda, 9/11 and now Islamic State. In January, France suffered the consequences on its own territory.

As a result, Paris has firmly allied itself with the Algerian and Egyptian regimes that have been most effective in fighting jihadism.