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Algerian president to visit France in June

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune will visit France in June, his office said Sunday, weeks after a diplomatic spat over a French-Algerian activist.

Algerian president to visit France in June
Abdelmadjid Tebboune in Algiers in August 2022 during a visit by the French President aimed at mending ties with the former French colony. Photo: Ludovic MARIN/AFP.

The visit had initially been due to take place in May, but was pushed back to June following a phone call between Tebboune and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, the Algerian presidency said.

During those talks, Tebboune and Macron discussed “ways of bolstering bilateral relations” between the two countries and the upcoming visit due to take place in the second half of June.

In early February, Algeria withdrew its ambassador from France, accusing its former colonial ruler of helping activist Amira Bouraoui flee the North African country.

The French-Algerian activist had been sentenced to two years in jail for “offending Islam” and insulting the Algerian president.

But Tebboune last month announced that the Algerian envoy would return to Paris, as the two countries sought to patch up relations that have repeatedly seen tensions erupt over the years.

Algerian-French ties fell into crisis in late 2021 after Macron questioned Algeria’s existence as a nation before the French occupation, and accused the government of fomenting “hatred towards France”.

But the two countries mended ties after a visit in August last year to Algeria by Macron, who signed with Tebboune a joint declaration to relaunch bilateral cooperation.

Algeria was a French colony for 130 years and gained its independence in 1962 after a devastating eight-year war.

French historians say half a million civilians and combatants died during the bloody war for independence, 400,000 of them Algerian. The Algerian authorities say 1.5 million were killed.

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POLITICS

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

New Caledonia's main international airport will reopen from Monday after being shut last month during a spate of deadly unrest, the high commission in the French Pacific territory said, adding a curfew would also be reduced.

New Caledonia airport to reopen Monday, curfew reduced: authorities

The commission said Sunday that it had “decided to reopen the airport during the day” and to “push back to 8:00 pm (from 6:00 pm) the start of the curfew as of Monday”.

The measures had been introduced after violence broke out on May 13 over a controversial voting reform that would have allowed long-term residents to participate in local polls.

The archipelago’s Indigenous Kanaks feared the move would dilute their vote, putting hopes for eventually winning independence definitively out of reach.

READ ALSO: Explained: What’s behind the violence on French island of New Caledonia?

Barricades, skirmishes with the police and looting left nine dead and hundreds injured, and inflicted hundreds of millions of euros in damage.

The full resumption of flights at Tontouta airport was made possible by the reopening of an expressway linking it to the capital Noumea that had been blocked by demonstrators, the commission said.

Previously the airport was only handling a small number of flights with special exemptions.

Meanwhile, the curfew, which runs until 6:00 am, was reduced “in light of the improvement in the situation and in order to facilitate the gradual return to normal life”, the commission added.

French President Emmanuel Macron had announced on Wednesday that the voting reform that touched off the unrest would be “suspended” in light of snap parliamentary polls.

Instead he aimed to “give full voice to local dialogue and the restoration of order”, he told reporters.

Although approved by both France’s National Assembly and Senate, the reform had been waiting on a constitutional congress of both houses to become part of the basic law.

Caledonian pro-independence movements had already considered reform dead given Macron’s call for snap elections.

“This should be a time for rebuilding peace and social ties,” the Kanak Liberation Party (Palika) said Wednesday before the announcement.

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