Algeria bans French military planes from its airspace

The Algerian government has banned French military planes from its airspace, the French army said on Sunday, amid a diplomatic crisis sparked by critical comments from the President of France Emmanuel Macron.

“This morning when we filed flight plans for two planes, we learned that the Algerians had stopped flights over their territory by French military planes,” an army spokesperson, Col. Pascal Ianni, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). He said the decision “does not affect our operations or intelligence missions” carried out in the Sahel.