Rabat – Algeria continues to flick controversy after it has announced the closure of his airspace to all flights from and to Mali, and quoted repeated drones from the southern neighbor.
The move, which was confirmed in a statement by the Foreign Ministry in Algeria, takes place in the middle escalate Diplomatic tensions and growing friction between Algiers and the military -led transition government in Bamako.
According to the Algerian government, a malic drone entered the Algerian airspace on the night of March 31 and crossed 1.6 kilometers into the national area before going again on an “enemy path”.
Algerian forces confirmed that they shot down the drone. Officials also referred two previous violations against airspace in August and December last year, all allegedly documented with radar data.
However, the time of the airspace closure raises wider questions. While Algeria framed the decision from the national defense, the announcement of a series of Spitz accusations of Mali and his regional allies, Burkina Faso and Niger, who accused Algiers to undermine their political sovereignty by hearing and sympathy with armed groups in the Sahel. Algeria denies these charges and describes them “unfounded” and “to justify an answer” in his latest explanation.
The language used in Algeria’s official answer has attracted attention for her unusually combative tone. In the statement, Mali’s leadership was called “clique”, which was driven by personal ambition, blamed to plunge the country into chaos and to present Algeria as a scapegoat for internal mistakes.
It also expressed “deep regret” about it call back For consultations.
However, some observers find that the aggressive attitude in Algeria has a risk of further instability in a region that has already been plagued by uprisings, coups and fragmented alliances. By closing his airspace and suspending diplomatic bonds, Algeria can limit the way to de -escalation at a time when the coordination between Saheländer is still critical.
Mali has not yet published an official answer to the closure. It remains unclear how this diplomatic break will affect the broader security cooperation in the Sahelity, where the balance of power is already changing in the middle of the growing Russian influence and the gradual withdrawal of the western armed forces.
“Algeria, which notoriously looks at a back base for terrorist groups, has just decided to close his airspace from April 7, 2025.
The interference of Algeria into the Sahel region, especially in countries such as Mali and Burkina Faso, is generally assumed that it is part of a wider pattern of destabilization that extends over many nations. While Rabat continues to gain international dynamics for his attitude towards the dispute of Western Sahara, Algeria remains firmly anchored in his campaign in order to undermine the territorial integrity of Morocco.
For decades, Algeria has supported the Polisario front, a separatist group that is looking for independence for Western Sahara and undermines the sovereignty of Morocco over its southern provinces.
With full support of Algeria, the Polisario front carried out numerous terrorist attacks on the southern regions of Morocco. Over the years, the Algerian leadership in financed terms armed the separatist group and gave it a platform to defend its demands in regional and international scenes.
