Algerian president says France must get rid of its ‘colonizer complex’

Algeria's president has called on France to relinquish its "colonizer complex," in order to reshape its relations with the North African state.

In an interview with the French daily Le Figaro, Abdelmadjid Tebboune said that "the relations between the two countries need -- in order to cool down -- France to liberate itself from its colonizer complex and Algeria from its colonized complex."

"We must take into account the 132 years of occupation because it did not start with the war of independence. There are proven, archived, and documented facts, and we cannot hide the writings attest," said Tebboune. 

As for nuclear tests conducted by colonial France in the region of southern Algeria, Tebboune urged France to "decontaminate" the nuclear test sites in Reggane and Tamanrasset and to cover the "medical treatment" of the people in those areas.

France has a dark history of colonization in Africa and Algeria is one of the countries that suffered immensely from French colonization.

The French president, however, has long ruled out issuing an apology for the highly sensitive issue of colonialism, only displaying a series of gestures purportedly aimed at healing wounds of the past.

The African nation was plundered by French colonizers for its rich natural resources, with 1.5 million Algerians killed by French forces during Algeria’s independence war between 1954 to 1962.

Tebboune's office stated last October that over 5.6 million Algerians were killed during the colonial period.

Back in 2018, Macron admitted that France had instigated a system that facilitated torture during the Algerian war. However, he refused to apologize for atrocities committed by French troops during the colonization of Algeria.

MG