Next week, French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Algeria in an effort to repair the frayed relations between Paris and Algiers.
According to a statement released by Macron's office on Saturday, Abdelmadjid Tebboune's offer was accepted by Macron. After a brief trip in December 2017 at the beginning of his first term, when Abdelaziz Bouteflika was still in office, this will be Macron's second official visit to the nation of North Africa.Relationships between France and Algeria reached a low point late last year after Macron allegedly questioned if Algeria had ever been as a country prior to the French invasion and accused its "political-military establishment" of rewriting history and inciting "hate toward France."
Algeria responded by removing its ambassador, but relations between the two parties seem to have improved since then.
Following a phone call between Macron and Tebboune, the French presidency released a statement saying that the trip would "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."
From August 25 to 27, Macron will travel to the former French colony.After a grueling eight-year struggle that culminated in the signing of the Evian Accords in March 1962, the nation of North Africa gained its independence from France.
Algeria eventually gained independence from colonial authority on July 5 of the same year, days after 99.72 percent of voters supported it in a referendum. However, the 132-year colonization still weighs on Algeria's relations with France.Second journey
Numerous thousands of people died during Algeria's independence war. French historians estimate that 500,000 civilians and fighters perished, 400,000 of them were Algerian, whereas the Algerian government maintains that 1.5 million people perished.
Although Macron has made a number of gestures, France has decided against making any sort of apology for the colonial era six decades later.A visit was announced by the French presidency as Algeria battles deadly wildfires made worse by climate change.
38 people were killed by fires in northern Algeria, which also destroyed more than 10% of a biosphere reserve that is designated by UNESCO.Firefighters battled two blazes in the far west on Saturday while the northeastern fires have been largely put out, according to the Algerian civil defense.
According to the presidency, Macron offered Tebboune the assistance of French air and land firefighting resources.Algeria's substantial natural gas reserves have recently made it a focus of the European Union's efforts to reduce imports from Russia.
It will be Macron's second visit to Algeria as head of state, and he will visit both the nation's capital, Algiers, and its second-largest city, Oran.
After widespread protests forced Bouteflika's ailing predecessor to step down, Tebboune, the former prime minister, won the presidency in elections held in 2019.
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