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Algeria is sending troops to neighboring Niger to guard energy sites the two countries share, its first military deployment abroad since it backed Egypt in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Getting into it: Algeria’s lawmakers held an emergency vote Sunday, with both chambers signing off, and President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s office announced the order Monday, saying Niger had asked for the help. All 148 senators who showed up voted yes, and the lower house backed it by what it called an absolute majority. The resolution sends the army units to Madama, an old French base in northern Niger near the Libyan border.

Officials haven’t said how many soldiers are going or when. It’s the first time Algeria has used a 2020 constitutional change that lets the president send troops abroad if two-thirds of each chamber signs off.

“We are not sending our soldiers to wage war in Niger, but for a mission to secure economic infrastructure,” Algerian Senator Belkacem Boulghiti told reporters after the vote.

Algeria has a lot riding on Niger. Its state energy company, Sonatrach, is helping build the roughly $13 billion Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline, which would move natural gas from Nigeria through Niger to Algeria and on to Europe. Sonatrach also has an oil deal in Niger’s Kafra region, where two exploration wells hold an estimated 270 million barrels. Niger, which shares a roughly 600-mile desert border with Algeria, has spent years fighting armed groups tied to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

The two countries haven’t always gotten along. Algeria spoke out against Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani when he seized power in 2023, and Niger pulled its ambassador from Algiers last year after Algeria shot down a drone from Mali, Niger’s fellow military-run ally. Things turned around this year, with Tiani visiting Algiers in February and Algeria sending four Su-30 fighter jets and a refueling plane in August to help put down an attempted mutiny in Niger.

Niger’s defense minister, Salifou Mody, was in Algeria last week, where the two sides signed a military cooperation deal whose terms haven’t been released.