Algeria–Mali border

A line between two French territories

In the early 1900s both sides of this line were French. A French law of 24 December 1902 annexed the Saharan south of Algeria as the Territoires du Sud, run separately from the northern departments.^[1] To the south lay the colony of Haut-Sénégal et Niger, part of French West Africa, with its capital at Bamako from 1904.^[1]

On 7 June 1905 two French officers, the commandant of Haut-Sénégal et Niger and the military commander of Algeria’s Département de l’Oasis, agreed a boundary between Algeria and French West Africa.^[1] The Niamey Convention of 20 June 1909 completed it, and the head of the French government approved it on 16 August 1911.^[1] The same line also covers today’s borders of Algeria with Mauritania and Niger.^[1]

Wadis, watersheds and pasture

The convention was written for people who moved herds, not for surveyors. It follows the watershed (the high ground dividing two drainage basins) of the Tilemsi valley and splits the pastures of two wadis between the two sides.^[1] Its western end simply ran “towards Cape Noun”, which the US Geographer took to mean Cap Draa in southern Morocco.^[1]

French maps turned this into a precise line. From the Niger tripoint it runs straight for 63 miles (101 km) to the I-n-Akantarer wadi, then north up that wadi and the Ti-n-Zaouatene wadi.^[1] It then runs west along drainage divides and meets the Bordj le Prieur–Tessalit road at about 21°06′N, 1°10′E. From there a single straight line runs 452 miles (727 km) to the Mauritanian tripoint.^[1]

“The pasture lands of the Ngouden wadi and its tributaries will belong to Algeria; the pasture lands of the Tukeouen wadi and its tributaries will belong to West Africa.”^[1]

Independence and after

Mali became independent in 1960, first as part of the short-lived Mali Federation with Senegal, and Algeria on 5 July 1962.^[1] On 30–31 January 1970 Presidents Moussa Traoré and Houari Boumediene met at Ouargla and agreed to set up a joint committee to demarcate the border. Its first meeting was planned for Kidal on 20 February 1970.^[1]

The border became a flashpoint in 2025. On the night of 31 March to 1 April, Algeria shot down a Malian drone near the border town of Tin Zaouatine. Algeria said the drone had entered its airspace by more than 2 km. Mali said it was about 10 km inside Mali.^[2] Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger recalled their ambassadors, and Algeria banned flights to and from Mali.^[2] In July 2026 the two countries restored their ambassadors and reopened their airspace to each other.^[3]