ALGIERS: France said Sunday it had ended months of tensions over a visa dispute with Algeria, just days after Paris and Rabat made a similar announcement.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, on a visit to the capital Algiers, announced a return “to a normal consular relationship” with Algeria, according to a statement posted on Twitter.
In September 2021, Paris reduced visa quotas to its former colonies of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, in a bid to encourage the countries to cooperate against irregular migration.
Paris slashed rates by 30 percent for Tunisia, and 50 percent for Algeria and Morocco, in the hopes the countries would repatriate their citizens living in France as irregular migrants.
The move sparked widespread public anger.
France restored visa rates with Tunisia to pre-Covid levels in August, and on Friday, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said Paris had returned to “full consular cooperation” with Morocco.
Consular ties with both Algeria and Morocco were effective since December 12, Paris has said.
On Sunday, Darmanin praised an “extremely strong relationship” between Paris and Algiers.
France and Algeria mend ties after visa row
https://arab.news/8nnt9
France and Algeria mend ties after visa row
- France reduced visas granted to Algerians, Moroccans and Tunisians last year to encourage countries’ cooperation against irregular migration
Ankara city hall says water cuts due to ‘record drought’
- Dam reservoir levels have dropped to 1.12 percent and taps are being shut off for several hours a day in certain districts on a rotating schedule in Ankara
ANKARA: Water cuts for the past several weeks in Turkiye’s capital were due to the worst drought in 50 years and an exploding population, a municipal official told AFP, rejecting accusations of mismanagement.
Dam reservoir levels have dropped to 1.12 percent and taps are being shut off for several hours a day in certain districts on a rotating schedule in Ankara, forcing many residents to line up at public fountains to fill pitchers.
“2025 was a record year in terms of drought. The amount of water feeding the dams fell to historically low levels, to 182 million cubic meters in 2025, compared with 400 to 600 million cubic meters in previous years. This is the driest period in the last 50 years,” said Memduh Akcay, director general of the Ankara municipal water authority.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called the Ankara municipal authorities, led by the main opposition party, “incompetent.”
Rejecting this criticism, the city hall says Ankara is suffering from the effects of climate change and a growing population, which has doubled since the 1990s to nearly six million inhabitants.
“In addition to reduced precipitation, the irregularity of rainfall patterns, the decline in snowfall, and the rapid conversion of precipitation into runoff (due to urbanization) prevent the dams from refilling effectively,” Akcay said.
A new pumping system drawing water from below the required level in dams will ensure no water cuts this weekend, Ankara’s city hall said, but added that the problem would persist in the absence of sufficient rainfall.
Much of Turkiye experienced a historic drought in 2025. The municipality of Izmir, the country’s third-largest city on the Aegean coast, has imposed daily water cuts since last summer.
