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Marrakech – Former Tunisian ambassador Elyes Kasri has reignited a long-dormant territorial dispute with Algeria, calling for Tunisia to reclaim approximately 20,000 km² of land he claims was unjustly incorporated into Algeria during the colonial era. His statements come in the wake of the UN Security Council’s recent adoption of Resolution 2797, which recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
Kasri, who served as Tunisia’s ambassador to several countries, including Germany, Japan, India, and South Korea, published a series of pointed messages on social media following the October 31 UN resolution. He characterized the decision as marking “the end of the subversive fiction of Sahrawi separatism” and predicted it would cause “a political earthquake within the Algerian regime.”
The moment demonstrated to the “kabranat” regime that neither oil-derived wealth nor being the largest country in Africa – which might, in their own minds, imply hegemony and domination – can obscure reality forever. Just causes endure, outlast propaganda, and ultimately reclaim their rightful recognition.
The dispute centers around territories in the Grand Erg Oriental, including the oil-rich region around El Borma, which were allegedly transferred from Tunisian control to Algeria by French colonial authorities. According to Kasri, these lands rightfully belong to Tunisia based on historical claims and were never properly returned after independence.
“The territories and hydrocarbons stolen from all of Algeria’s neighbors have allowed the Mouradia clique to destabilize the Maghreb and the continent for half a century,” Kasri wrote, referring to Algeria’s presidential palace. He further accused Algeria of building its power on “the confiscation of regional resources.”
What makes this situation even more alarming is Tunisia’s accelerating slide toward becoming Algeria’s unofficial “59th wilaya” under President Kais Saied. His administration has consistently aligned with Algerian interests at the expense of Tunisia’s sovereignty and economic independence.
Tunisia’s autonomy weakens with each passing day
On October 7, Algerian Defense Minister Saïd Chengriha and his Tunisian counterpart Khaled Sehili signed a military and security cooperation agreement.
The secretive nature of this agreement, which received no official announcement from Tunisia’s presidency, foreign ministry, or defense department, speaks volumes about Algeria’s growing influence over Tunisian affairs.
The colonial origin of this dispute deserves closer examination. The border issue centers on what Tunisians call the “Borne 233” controversy, referring to a border marker at Garat el Hamel, approximately 15 kilometers southwest of Ghadamès.
This marker was considered the final point of the Tunisian-Libyan border, legitimately claimed by post-independence Tunisia based on the May 19, 1910 treaty that precisely delimited the border from the sea to Borne 233, as well as the 1956 Franco-Libyan treaty establishing the border between Algeria and Libya, which also referenced Borne 233.
The disputed area is not insignificant. The 20,000 km² territory is larger than Kuwait (17,818 km²) and comparable to the size of Slovenia or El Salvador. But more important than its size is what lies beneath.
Energy resources drive this dispute
Major oil fields in the contested region, particularly El Borma, discovered in 1964, have been crucial to Algeria’s economy. The field, which straddles the Algerian-Tunisian border, peaked at 76,000 barrels per day in 1985 and remains significant despite declining production.
Other important fields in the disputed area include those in the Ouargla province and the Berkine basin, collectively representing approximately 11% of Algeria’s total petroleum reserves.
As if this plunder of natural resources wasn’t enough, Algeria has systematically worked to make Tunisia economically dependent. Under Saied’s leadership, Tunisia has been willingly dragged into Algeria’s orbit of influence, abandoning decades of diplomatic balance in the Maghreb region.
Kasri mocks the “khawa khawa” (brothers, brothers) slogan that characterizes Tunisian-Algerian relations. “Some persist in glorifying a so-called big sister who has nevertheless taken more than 20,000 km² of our territory,” he laments, adding sarcastically, “Those who ask ‘where is the oil?’ should wonder if what they’re selling us drop by drop doesn’t come from our own lands.”
Adding insult to injury, Saied’s administration has ensnared Tunisia in Algeria’s regional conflicts. Most notably, Tunisia has broken with its historical neutrality by supporting Algeria’s position on Western Sahara, despite having no direct stake in the issue. This sycophantic alignment has damaged Tunisia’s standing with Morocco and other regional powers.
The territorial issue has deep historical roots. After Tunisia gained independence in 1956, President Habib Bourguiba made border rectification a national priority. According to historian Mezri Haddad, Bourguiba based his claims on historical titles and Ottoman maps dating to 1707 that attested to Tunisian sovereignty over the region.
In a February 1959 speech, Bourguiba stated, “Our territorial borders and our geographical existence have been plundered in the North and South and must be returned to us… We believe it our duty to claim our Saharan space today rather than open a conflict with our Algerian brothers tomorrow.”
The crisis came to a head on July 18, 1961, when hundreds of young Tunisian volunteers converged on Tataouine, where labor leader Ahmed Tlili awaited them. The next morning, Tunisia’s young army planted the Tunisian flag at Garat El Hamel, on Borne 233.
This victory was short-lived, as French aviation bombarded the position and infantry troops were rapidly dispatched from Algiers to quash the Tunisian claim.
In his memoirs, General de Gaulle recounted the event in his typical manner: “On July 18, in the extreme south, an imposing Tunisian detachment crossed the Saharan border, besieged our post at Garet El Hamel, and occupied the terrain called Borne 233. Presumably, Bourguiba believed that Paris would back down from triggering large-scale action… He therefore expected negotiations to open based on the fait accompli, and consequently give him satisfaction… I do not allow anyone to disrespect France!”
The founder of the Fifth Republic (1958) was more talkative – and no less duplicitous – during his well-known press conference of September 5, 1961. “It must be said that during the negotiations at Rambouillet (February 27, 1961), the President of the Tunisian Republic demanded in the Sahara a rectification of the borders in favor of Tunisia and at the expense of Algeria. This border adjustment was meant to provide Tunisia with future access to the Sahara. Moreover, Mr. Bourguiba did not hide that this was only a first step, as he ultimately aimed for the region of El Golea, located deep in the desert, where, as is known, major oil reserves are found,” he stated.
“The Tunisian state was claiming the very source of the wealth. We made it clear to Mr. Bourguiba at the time that, since we were in the process of assisting in the birth of an Algerian state – one that could not fail to have a primary interest in the Sahara – we were not going to recklessly carve up the stones and sands.”
The betrayal was only beginning at that point
When France invaded the Regency of Algiers in 1830, the territory under the Dey’s effective control was largely limited to a narrow coastal strip and a few inland beyliks, estimated at no more than 200,000 to 250,000 km². Over the following century, colonial authorities vastly expanded “Algeria” southwards and eastwards, administratively annexing large Saharan regions that were never historically part of the Regency.
These expansions incorporated Moroccan Eastern Saharan lands such as Tindouf and Bechar, Tuareg confederation territories historically linked to Mali and Niger (Azawad and the central Sahara), as well as parts of southern Tunisia and western Libyan Saharan zones.
By the time Algeria gained independence in 1962, the country’s territory had been redefined into the borders we know today – a state of nearly 2.38 million km², making it the largest country in Africa, not because of pre-colonial inheritance, but primarily through French administrative re-mapping of the Sahara.
The Algerian provisional government initially promised to discuss these border issues after independence, just as it had previously assured Morocco under King Mohammed V regarding the Eastern Sahara – including Tindouf, Bechar, and the surrounding regions – territories that had been administratively carved out by France and attached to colonial Algeria.
At the Cairo conference in January 1964, Bourguiba and Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella reached a secret agreement to return the disputed territory to Tunisia. However, this arrangement collapsed after Houari Boumediene seized power in Algeria in 1965.
Veteran politician Tahar Belkhodja, who was part of the Tunisian delegation in July 1964, insightfully recalls this episode in his 1998 memoirs about the “Bourguiba years.” “I joined our delegation from Dakar at the Cairo second summit conference of African countries. Bourguiba once again submitted to Ben Bella the problem of border delimitation from Borne 233,” he recounts. “The Algerian head of state verbally consented to an arrangement recognizing Tunisian sovereignty. But upon his return to Algiers, Boumediene, Minister of Defense, and Bouteflika, Minister of Foreign Affairs, refused to endorse this agreement.”
Tunisia’s economic weakness eventually forced Bourguiba to capitulate. In April 1968, Tunisia signed a protocol that officially recognized the colonial border demarcation. This surrender was formalized in a January 6, 1970 agreement signed by Habib Bourguiba Jr. and Abdelaziz Bouteflika, then Algeria’s foreign minister.
The final humiliation came on January 5, 1970, when a Tunisian delegation of senior officers went to Algiers to discuss the perennial border question, only to be told to turn back because “discussions on the border issue are no longer necessary. The matter is resolved!” The next day, the “treaty of friendship, good neighborliness, and cooperation” was signed in Tunis, delimiting the border at Borne 220 as desired by the Algerians and French, rather than at Borne 233.
Before this donation to Algeria, Tunisia’s area reached 185,000 km². After the treaty, it was reduced to 164,000 km².
The plunder of Tunisia continues unabated today
The Kais Saied era has witnessed an unprecedented level of Algerian influence in Tunisian affairs. What Bourguiba reluctantly conceded under duress, Saied has seemingly embraced with open arms. Algerian officials now treat Tunisia with the same “condescension and contempt” that Kasri describes in his social media posts, viewing the country as little more than an extension of Algerian territory.
“When tracing North African borders,” writes Tunisian jurist, politician, and academic Mohamed Charfi, “French leaders sought to advantage Algeria, considered at the time a French department that should remain so, compared to Tunisia and Morocco, which were, by definition, provisional. Thus, they attributed all the Sahara they occupied to Algeria. This is a colonial fact and a historical accident.”
The tragedy deepens when one considers the “khawakhawite” advocates whom Kasri condemns as suffering from “ideological blindness or an instinct of submission with masochistic and anti-patriotic overtones.” These elements within Tunisian society continue to champion closer ties with Algeria despite receiving nothing in return except economic exploitation and political subordination.
Even more revealing was the Tunisian parliament’s ratification of this unequal agreement on January 30, 1970. Only one MP, Ali Marzouki, dared to speak up. “This is not the first time that Tunisia has given up part of its territory to France, and today in favor of Algeria… The same event occurred under the reign of Ahmed Bey, when our country ceded to the French authorities in Algeria an entire region called Najd near Souk el Arba,” Marzouki lamented. “Then, in 1901, when the borders passed through the Sahara, Tunisia was unwillingly amputated of an important part of the Sahara… Today, Tunisia agrees to sacrifice in the name of friendship and fraternity an important part of its territory to the Algerian brothers.”
Kasri now sees the UN’s Western Sahara resolution as an opportunity for Tunisia to follow Morocco’s example. He condemns what he calls “defeatists” who cite the principle of the intangibility of inherited colonial borders to dismiss Tunisia’s legitimate territorial claims. This principle, he argues, is both a “moral sin perpetuating the crime of territorial plunder by former colonial powers” and “an obstacle to stability and economic development.”
The dispute affects Tunisia profoundly
Water resources are also at stake. Kasri mentions the Medjerda River, allegedly dried up due to diversions and dams on the Algerian side, and the underground reserves of the Albien aquifer, “the largest underground water reservoir in the world.” Algeria’s control of these vital resources gives it further leverage over Tunisia, whose agricultural sector suffers during periods of drought.
The historical record shows that Bourguiba never truly accepted the loss of these territories. Throughout his life, he kept hanging behind his desk the true geographic map of Tunisia with the border not delimited beyond Borne 233, including the Tunisian Sahara, nearly 20,000 km² or almost twice the size of Qatar. To his foreign visitors, including Algerians, he would sometimes comment on the map with dark humor: “All that is Algeria, it has a big belly… full of gas!”
Significantly, Ben Ali never removed this historic map-turned-painting. The Tunisian historian and diplomat Mezri Haddad, citing his late friend Dali Jazi – a professor of public law, political scientist, and multiple-time minister under Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali – said that even during his first trip abroad as President to Algeria (March 2-3, 1988), he had the military “audacity” to tell Chadli Bendjedid jokingly that “the issue of our southern territories has remained here,” making a gesture with his finger pointed at his throat.
Successive Tunisian presidents have refused to remove or replace this artwork, and it still hangs in the Presidential Palace in Carthage, a quiet reminder of lands relinquished and of a history that official diplomacy often prefers not to revisit.
In stark contrast to Tunisia’s subservience under Saied, Morocco has boldly asserted its territorial rights and won international recognition. The UN Security Council resolution on Western Sahara demonstrates that colonial-era injustices can be rectified through persistent diplomacy and strategic alliances. This precedent has inspired Kasri and other Tunisian nationalists to renew their claims to the stolen territories.
History is on the move against Algeria’s manufactured territorial legitimacy
While Algerian officials have not officially responded to Kasri’s provocative statements, the regime’s discomfort is palpable. The UN resolution’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara has already undermined Algeria’s regional standing. Now, with the resurrection of Tunisian territorial claims, the Algerian regime faces challenges on multiple fronts.
Kasri’s comments have sparked renewed interest in political and intellectual circles in Tunisia. Some see them as harbingers of a possible rebalancing of power in the Maghreb in light of developments in the Western Sahara issue.
For Kasri, Tunisia’s path forward – daunting but necessary – is to work towards breaking free from Algeria’s suffocating embrace. This would require reclaiming not just the stolen territories but also the national dignity that Saied’s administration has compromised. As the Maghreb undergoes geopolitical realignment following the UN resolution, the moment for Tunisia to assert its rightful claims has perhaps never been more opportune.
Optimistic that the current of history might finally be turning against Algeria, the former Tunisian ambassador concludes with a history enthusiast’s warning to Algiers: “History is full of reversals, and the will of peoples and their attachment to the land of their ancestors is similar to a river that always ends up returning to its natural bed.”
