8 February 2021. BBC: Algeria is demanding that former colonial power France clean up radioactive contamination caused by nuclear tests it conducted decades ago in the south of the country, and pay compensation to victims.
“France has to assume its historical responsibilities and decontaminates the sites where conducted nuclear tests in the 1960s,” a high-ranking Algerian army official said.
Gen Bouzid Boufrioua told the Algerian army’s magazine, El Djeich, that: “The ‘polluter pays’ principle recognised by the international community requires the nuclear powers to right their historical wrongs.”
The magazine reports that the French army has conducted a total of 17 nuclear tests in Algeria, including four explosions above ground in the locality of Reggane and 13 underground explosions in the region of Ekker.
More than 60 years after the first nuclear test “France is still refusing to provide the maps for the nuclear waste buried in the Algerian desert,” the general added.
There has been no comment from France as yet on the Algerian army’s demands.
