Amid increasing tensions between France and Algeria, notably over refusal by Algiers to accept its deported nationals and recognition by Paris of Morocco's sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara, president Emmanuel Macron has asked his government to adopt a tougher stance against the former French colony.
Following the expulsion earlier this week of 12 French officials from Algeria after an Algerian consulate official in France was placed under investigation for kidnapping, France has expelled 12 Algerian officials in retaliation.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday wounded up his official visit to Morocco, in which he sealed a re-warming of relations with the kingdom after several years of tensions. One of the major factors in that process was his recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Macron led a delegation of French companies on his visit, which have signed multi-billion dollar deals to invest in the territory. However, as Ilyes Ramdani reports from Rabat, there are doubts over the legality of the economic incursion into a land annexed by Morocco, but also claimed by an independence movement of the local Sahrawi people, while considered by the UN to be the last “non-self-governing” terrirory on the African continent.
On the second day of his three-day official visit to Morocco, French President Emmanuel Macron ended ambiguity over his approach to the issue of independence for the territory of Western Sahara, telling the Moroccan parliament that French companies 'will support the development' of the former Spanish colony whose 'present and future' belong under 'Moroccan sovereignty'.
French President Emmanuel Macron is to make a state visit to Morocco beginning on October 28th, in a move to mend high tensions between Paris and Rabat over recent years with what Moroccan King Mohammed VI called 'a renewed and ambitious vision covering several strategic sectors'.
In a letter to Moroccan King Mohammed VI, French President Emmanuel Macron said Morocco's proposal to offer the Western Sahara region limited autonomy under its sovereignty was the “only basis” to solve the long-running conflict in which the Algerian-backed Polisario Front demands the full independence of the former Spanish colony.
Two men from a group of four holidaymakers with dual French and Moroccan nationality were killed when an Algerian coastguards reportedly shot at them after they strayed into Algerian waters on jet skis.
Revelations in the so-called “Qatargate” corruption scandal engulfing the European Parliament this month, involving past and present members of the chamber, including its former vice-president, are snowballing. While the Belgian authorities continue investigations into those implicated in an alleged Qatari slush-fund used to buy favours from EU lawmakers, MEPs have suspended all legislative work in connection with Qatar, and withdrawn access to the institution by the Gulf State’s representatives. But they shied from including Morocco in the sanctions, despite growing evidence of its involvement in the influence peddling. Mediapart's European affairs correspondent Ludovic Lamant reports.
The French government has announced that Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi died after a strike by France's Operation Barkhane force, which fights Islamist militants in the Sahel, mostly in Mali, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso.
