French President President Emmanuel Macron [Photo: France 24]
The Algeria-France diplomatic row has escalated with Algeria now banning French military planes from flying over its territory.
The French Planes jets regularly fly over Algeria to reach the Sahel region of West Africa, where its soldiers are currently helping to battle jihadist insurgents.
French Armed Forces spokesman, Colonel Pascal Ianni confirmed that Algeria had closed its airspace to two flights, however noting that the move will not have major consequence for the operations in the Sahel region.
“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,” said Ianni.
This comes a day after Algeria recalled its ambassador from Paris, accusing France of unacceptable interference in its affairs.
According to Algeria, it was responding to comments attributed to President Emmanuel Macron by a French daily knowns as Le Monde.
Macron was quoted saying, that Algeria was ruled by a political-military system with an official history that was based on hatred of France.
This follows days after France cut the number of visas it issues to Algerian and other North African citizens.