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Marrakech – A Moroccan national was evacuated from a Tunisian aircraft that made an emergency landing at Algiers airport on Tuesday following a medical emergency during the flight.
According to Algerian media reports, the Tunisair flight was forced to land at Houari Boumediene Airport to allow the evacuation of the Moroccan passenger who suffered a health problem mid-flight. Civil Protection personnel immediately transferred the woman to Mustapha Pacha University Hospital for medical treatment.
The incident unfolded amid deeply fractured Algeria-Morocco relations, following Algiers’ unilateral decision in August 2021 to sever diplomatic ties with Rabat, when then-Foreign Minister Ramdane Lamamra accused Morocco of persistent “hostile actions.”
The diplomatic rupture deepened one month later, when Algeria’s presidency announced the immediate closure of the country’s airspace to all Moroccan civilian and military aircraft, following a High Security Council meeting chaired by Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
Algeria justified the comprehensive airspace closure as a response to “continued provocations and hostile practices on the Moroccan side.” This decision effectively cut off all direct air connectivity between the two North African neighbors.
Tensions reached a new peak in September 2024, when Algeria reimposed visa requirements on all Moroccan nationals, abruptly ending nearly two decades of visa-free travel.
The Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Moroccan passport holders of engaging in “organized crime networks, drug and human trafficking, smuggling, illegal immigration and espionage,” including allegations of deploying “Zionist intelligence agents” with Moroccan passports.
This move marked a clear break from Algeria’s earlier posture. When diplomatic ties were severed in 2021, Algiers had deliberately avoided visa restrictions, citing a desire to preserve familial, social, and cultural ties between the two “brotherly peoples.”
The measure applies without exception to all holders of Moroccan passports, reinforcing what many analysts view as a longstanding policy of isolation dating back to the Houari Boumédiène era of the 1970s, when Algeria first institutionalized a confrontational posture toward its western neighbor.
