Due to the ongoing strike in France, the national airline of Morocco, Royal Air Maroc (RAM), stated today that it will be canceling additional flights from and to that nation.

According to a tweet from Royal Air Maroc, “We are compelled to cancel some flights on April 1st, from and to France, due to the strike notice of the civil service, announced by the unions of the French DGAC.”

In the same threat, RAM encouraged travelers to visit its website to learn about some options in case their travel arrangements were to be made right away.

“We offer several solutions to our dear passengers affected by these cancellations, which can be consulted on the following link,” Royal Air Maroc wrote.

En raison du Préavis de grève de la fonction publique, relayé par les syndicats de la DGAC Française, nous sommes contraints de procéder à l'annulation de quelques vols le 1er Avril, en provenance et à destination de France. pic.twitter.com/HgLSByoNqh

— Royal Air Maroc (@RAM_Maroc) March 31, 2023

Due to the current workers’ strike against the contentious pension reforms implemented by the French government, flights into and out of France have recently experienced significant disruptions.

After Macron’s administration announced intentions to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, claiming the urgent need to address the issue of declining state revenues, strikes broke out.

The choice caused a great deal of public outrage and sparked a national backlash from French labor unions. The resulting strikes affected a variety of industries, including airport employees who work for the government. Workers from the railway industry have likewise joined demonstrations opposing the reform.

Concerns are mounting over the crippling effect the protests could have on France’s national economy. In response to the wave of protests, French President Emmanuel Macron said in a televised interview last week that his government will continue to push through the reform regardless of public outcry.

Read Also : France refuses to pause matches to allow Muslim players to break their Ramadan fast

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Royal Air Maroc (RAM) has announced the cancellation of some flights on January 31, from and to Paris, due to the strike notice of the civil service in France.

“Following the strike announcement of the civil service in France on January 31, 2023, all airlines have been asked to reduce their flight schedule for the day of January 31, 2023 (applicable from 5:00 am GMT to 10:30 pm GMT) on the airport of Paris-ORY and Royal Air Maroc accompanies its customers by transferring them to other flights,” says RAM on its website.

Customers scheduled on the cancelled flights AT764 and AT765 of January 31, 2023 have been transferred to flights AT770 and AT771 of January 31, 2023, the same source said.

Meanwhile, customers scheduled on the cancelled flight AT777 of January 31, 2023 have been transferred to flight AT761 of January 31, 2023.

As for the customers scheduled on the cancelled flight AT776 of January 31, 2023, they were transferred on board flight AT760 and remainder o/b at764 of February 01, 2023.

In addition, for all Royal Air Maroc ticket holders on the above flights, not wishing to travel on the above flights made available to them, the national airline will grant a refund of the ticket in its original means of payment or a free change of date, depending on availability, from and to the same destination or a destination of the RAM network in Europe, for a new date of travel within 15 days following the date of the cancelled flight, provided that the initial duration of stay is maintained.

It should be noted that for any change of destination, the possible difference in taxes is at the passenger’s expense.

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Experts believe that the recent announcement by the Sahrawi separatists that Morocco had launched a drone strike that killed one of their military leaders would, if confirmed, be a turning point in the decades-long conflict in the Sahara

In a statement to “Agence France-Presse,” Moroccan political researcher Mohamed Chiker, who specializes in the affairs of the Moroccan armed forces, estimated that despite the “difficulty proving” the use of a drone, the scale of the operation that was carried out Wednesday “was unprecedented since the ceasefire” concluded in 1991 under the auspices of the United Nations.

In the absence of information from the Moroccan authorities, the circumstances, location, and manner of the attack remain unclear.

One thing is certain, the killing of the commander of the “national gendarmerie” in the separatist “Polisario” Front, Dah Al-Bendir, on Wednesday, during an operation by the Moroccan Armed Forces following an incursion by the Front’s forces, according to identical sources.

For his part, Moroccan military expert Abdelhamid Harifi confirmed that “Morocco does not officially possess armed drones,” but that “it possesses a group of unarmed drones that contain the latest technology.”

He further added, “In the region, Morocco is a pioneer in the use of drones to collect information and set targets.”

Therefore, the expert considers that “it is possible that the army used a similar drone to monitor suspicious movements in the buffer zone on Wednesday.”

Information transmitted by the Moroccan media indicates that three Harvang drones have been received by the end of 2020, in addition to submitting orders for Israeli Bluebird and American MQ-9B Sky Guardian drones, which seem to have not yet been delivered.

This information coincided with the announcement by the administration of former US President Donald Trump at the end of 2020 recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara.

Mohamed Chiker stresses that with or without drones, Morocco “militarily controls all regions of the Sahara and has an arsenal of weapons capable of striking any move by the Polisario front.”

In practice, Rabat has strengthened its military capabilities in the last two years, to advance from the 60th to 53rd rank in the world in the “Global Fire Power” classification for armies.

“Jeune Afrique” ​​magazine indicated at the end of 2020 that the Sahrawi separatists “are equipped with weapons that have changed little since the eighties and depend entirely on their Algerian patron to renew it.”

According to Far Maroc, an unofficial Facebook page of the Moroccan army, the Moroccan armed forces responded to “suspicious movements of Polisario leaders inside the buffer zones,” which led to “several deaths,” including the killing of the leader of the “National Gendarmerie” of the Polisario Front.

“Sahara News Agency” published a statement Thursday, which it later withdrew, announcing that the military commander was killed in the town of Tifariti, located in the northeastern desert area under the control of Polisario, as a result of a “military operation” behind the sand wall established by Morocco.

Several media outlets indicated that the “Polisario” attack and the Moroccan response took place in the town of Twizky in southern Morocco, near the border with Algeria.

The Moroccan army had recently erected its berm in that area, in which “Polisario” announced that it had killed “three Moroccan soldiers during an attack on February 8,” which Rabat did not confirm.

After nearly three decades of the ceasefire, armed clashes between the “Polisario” front and Morocco renewed in mid-November, after the deployment of Moroccan forces in the far south of the Sahara to end the blockade of traffic in the “Guergarat” border crossing between Morocco and Mauritania.

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