Djelloul Chetouane in Africa News: Russian mediation in the Sahel collides with military partisanship

Lavrov in the Sahel: Russian mediation rhetoric collides with the reality of military partisanship

From the national press – Africa News daily, Thursday 16 October 2025

An analysis by Dr Djelloul Chetouane, President of the Hisn Al-Mateen Bloc Foundation, examining Russia's position in the African Sahel and highlighting the contradiction between diplomatic rhetoric about “mediation and settlement” and field practices that reflect a clear bias towards military options at the expense of political solutions.

The article highlights:

• the shifting regional equation in the Sahel;
• the complexities of the situation between Moscow, Mali, Niger and Algeria;
• the importance of holding to the Algiers Agreement as the sole reference for peace and stability in the region.

“Mediation is not done with cannons or drones, but with the scales of justice and respect for the will of peoples.”