Niamey abandons Algeria-Niger pipeline

Niger has lost interest in the stalling trans-Saharan gas pipeline that was planned to link Nigeria to Algeria.

Media reports said Niger stopped studies for the project that took decades with no progress so far.

The decision takes place amid deteriorating political ties with Algeria,who is accused by Niger and its other Sahel allies,Mali and Burkina Faso,of backing terrorists in the region.

Terrorist groups that sprouted in the Sahel were all led by Algerians who fought the 1990s civil war. Sahel states and pundits see Algeria as exporting its homegrown terrorists to their region.

Terrorism is the main threat to security in the alliance of Sahel states,who have been battling different insurgents sprouting from Algerian-led terror groups such as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and ISIS.

Niger’s halt to the Algeria-Nigeria pipeline signals distrust with Algeria,notably after Algiers stepped up expulsions of Nigerien and other sub-Saharan migrants whose rights have been violated as authorities continue to abandon them in the harsh desert on the border.

The pipeline never materialized also because of security reasons due to risks of ransacking and vandalism by different terrorist and criminal groups active in the Sahel.

Algeria has for decades shown indifference to the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline because it does not want to offer its main client,Europe,an alternative source of gas. Algeria nurtured the hope of becoming Russia’s Europe to the South.

But it renewed interest in the project following progress on the Atlantic pipeline that will link Morocco to Nigeria.

The indifference to the Niger-Algeria pipeline project stands in stark contrast to the momentum ushered by the Morocco-Nigeria pipeline plan which has the backing of the regional grouping ECOWAS as well as the USA,and the UAE.