Algeria–Morocco border

A line France never drew

France occupied Algiers in 1830 and treated northern Algeria as part of France from 1848, and it annexed the Algerian Sahara in 1902.^[2] Morocco kept its independence far longer and only became a French protectorate in 1912.^[5]

Before the 20th century the frontier between Morocco and Algeria had never been drawn. From 1903 the French authorities in Algeria pushed west and claimed Béchar and Tindouf, which Morocco saw as belonging to its crown. Because both sides were under French control, France never fixed an international border there.^[5]

Tindouf, Béchar and the Sand War

During Algeria’s war of independence, Morocco refused a French offer to return Tindouf and Béchar in exchange for shutting the Algerian rebels’ bases on its soil. In 1961 Hassan II and the Algerian government-in-exile agreed that there was a border dispute and put it off until Algeria was independent.^[3]

Independent Algeria, from 1962, would not give up territory won at such cost. By the end of September 1963 fighting had broken out, and in October it became the Sand War. A ceasefire mediated by Ethiopia’s Emperor Haile Selassie and Mali’s President Modibo Keïta took effect on 2 November. Morocco had held the area around Tindouf, but both armies went back to where they had started.^[3]

At a summit at Ifrane in 1969, Hassan II and Houari Boumediene settled the question, and a treaty followed in 1972 in which Morocco gave up its claim to Tindouf and Béchar. In return it expected Algerian support for its claim to the Spanish Sahara, joint use of the Gara Djebilet iron mine, and cheap Algerian gas.^[3] When Algeria instead backed Sahrawi independence, Morocco’s parliament did not ratify the treaty.^[3]

The Western Sahara stretch

The southernmost part of this line, along the meridian 8°40′ W, was agreed by France and Spain on 3 October 1904 as the edge between French Algeria and Spanish territory.^[2] Its north end, at 27°40′ N, is where the Tarfaya zone, which Spain handed to Morocco in 1958, met Spanish Sahara.^[2] Atlas draws Western Sahara as part of Morocco, so on this map the whole line looks like one border; the Western Sahara article explains why that is disputed.

Closed since 1994

After a terrorist attack on a hotel in Marrakesh in 1994, Morocco suspected Algeria and imposed visas on Algerians. Algeria answered by closing the land border on 27 August 1994.^[1][4] Families on either side have to fly to see each other, and by 2014 both sides were putting up fences along the frontier.^[1]

At the end of August 2021 Algeria cut diplomatic relations with Morocco and closed its airspace to Moroccan planes.^[4]