The government of Mali has blocked a British Airways flight from using its airspace, forcing the flight to land in Spain before returning to London.
The flight, which is said to be heading to Ghana, was denied passage through the Malian airspace.
A passenger who spoke to media outlets in Ghana said, “when the flight captain announced over the public address system in the flight about the development, we noticed that our flight was circling around the Malian airspace and that went on for about an hour.”
“The captain, after an hour of circling the Malian airspace, turned around and tried to land in Algeria, but that did not work as well, so he ended up landing in the city of Malaga in Spain, where he was permitted.”
The flight departed from Malaga and arrived in London at about 2 am on Saturday, April 9, 2022, “the source further explained.”
The Root Cause
Recall that the EU sanctioned key members of the Malian transitional government following the coup.
In a statement, the EU said “the five designated people are subject to a travel ban, which prevents them from entering or transiting through EU territories, and an asset freeze.”
Also to suspend non-essential financial transactions and freeze Malian state assets in ECOWAS central and commercial banks.
