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By Ben Farmer
Algeria has approved sending troops to protect its energy investments in neighbouring Niger, marking the country’s first foreign military deployment in more than 50 years.
The North African state’s parliament agreed to send army units to northern Niger, where Algeria’s state-owned energy company, Sonatrach, has signed several oil exploration and drilling agreements.
The resolution allows Algeria’s first overseas troop deployment since the country sent forces to support Egypt in the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Niger and neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso have for years been plagued by a powerful Islamist insurgency, with the Sahel region now considered a global epicentre of jihadist violence.
Niger’s ruling military junta has turned to Moscow for military assistance, but Russian mercenaries have struggled to contain the insurgency.
Parliamentarians did not disclose how many troops would be deployed, but Algeria’s military is one of the best-equipped in North Africa, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
The country has increased its defence budget in recent years, spending more than eight per cent of GDP on the military in 2024.
According to the think tank’s 2025 global military rankings, Algeria had an active army of 110,000 personnel and a 187,000-strong paramilitary force.
The army is built around a core of ageing Soviet-era equipment, supplemented by Chinese drones, artillery and air defence systems.
In 2020, Algeria amended its non-interventionist constitution to allow the deployment of peacekeepers or troops fighting terrorists beyond its borders, provided parliament approved the move by a two-thirds majority.
A weekend vote in the country’s upper house saw unanimous support, with all 148 participating members of the 174-seat chamber backing the measure.
A statement said the decision was based on “protecting energy interests and implementing the provisions of the bilateral agreement signed between the two countries”.
Ties between Algiers and Niamey have improved rapidly in recent months following a period of strained relations.
Algeria opposed the 2023 coup that brought Niger’s Gen Abdourahamane Tiani to power, and relations deteriorated further last year when Algeria shot down a Malian drone near their shared border.
However, relations have warmed significantly this year following a series of agreements as Niamey seeks foreign investment to develop its energy sector.
Sonatrach has signed exploration and drilling agreements in the Kafra and Bilma blocks in northern Niger.
The company is also working with Niger and Nigeria to build the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline, which would export African gas to Europe and other international markets.
Algeria first signalled its willingness to provide Niger with military support earlier this year when Algiers dispatched fighter jets to the country hours after a failed coup attempt.
Sukhoi Su-30 aircraft and a refuelling plane landed at Niamey airport shortly after mutinous soldiers attacked the presidential palace and other sites.
Algeria’s Ministry of Defence said at the time that it had sent the aircraft on “a mission to support the Nigerien army in confronting an attempt to destabilise the brotherly state of Niger”.
