Mali, fresh from disentangling itself from France, aims to fully extricate itself from Algerian oversight. The Bamako government declared the 2015 Algiers peace agreement defunct.
To amplify accusations of racism against Moroccan players and coach Walid Regragui after a heated match, Algerian state television aired a fabricated statement falsely attributed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo Football Federation.
Morocco continues to emphasize Mauritania's essential role in the royal initiative aimed at giving Sahel countries access to the Atlantic Ocean, as Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita publicly reiterated Monday in Rabat during a meeting with his Mauritanian counterpart.