French President to visit Algeria next week to relaunch ties
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According to the French presidency, French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Algeria next week to try to improve the strained ties between Paris and Algiers.
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Algeria, city of Algiers (Getty Images)
French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Algeria next week in a bid to make better the strained ties between Paris and Algiers, the French presidency said Saturday.
Late last year, French-Algerian ties hit a low after the French President reportedly questioned whether or not an Algerian nation existed before French colonization, and attacked the 'completely re-written official history' of Algeria.
In response, Algeria rejected "any interference" in its internal affairs and summoned its ambassador from Paris. However, the two parties seem to have mended ties since.
"This trip will contribute to deepening the bilateral relationship looking to the future... to reinforce Franco-Algerian cooperation in the face of regional challenges and to continue the work of addressing the past," the presidency said in a statement after a call was held between Macron and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
Algeria gained its independence from France following an 8-year struggle under occupation, which left hundreds of thousands dead before it ended in March 1962 with the signing of the Evian Accords.
On July 5 of the same year, days after 99.72% voted for independence in a referendum, Algeria finally broke free from colonial rule, but the memories of a 132-year occupation keep haunting its ties with France.
According to French historians, the conflict killed half a million civilians and fighters, the vast majority of whom were Algerians, whereas Algerian authorities say three times as many died.
But six decades on, despite a string of gestures by Macron, he threw away all the symbolic gestures of solidarity by rejecting calls for France to "apologize or repent" for its occupation of Algeria.
The French presidency announced Macron's visit as Algeria reels from devastating wildfires which have burned 800 hectares of forest and 1,800 hectares of woodlands since the beginning of August and killed 38 people in Algeria.
The presidency said Macron offered France's land and air firefighting services to help.
