by Ghita Benslimane
by Ghita Benslimane
Casablanca — The U.S. State Department has updated its travel advisory yesterday, warning Americans against travel to Algeria.
The alerts and warnings page for Algeria hadn’t been updated since March 1, 2016. But as of December 13, the Department of State “continues to warn U.S. citizens against travel to remote areas in southern and eastern Algeria, as well as isolated parts of the Kabylie region, due to a high threat of terrorist attacks and kidnapping.”
Terrorist groups, says the US DoS, remain active in those regions. “While major cities are heavily policed,” it states, “extremists have conducted attacks (often using bombs, ambushes, or false roadblocks) in the mountainous Kabylie region (provinces of Boumerdes, Tizi Ouzou, Bouira, and Bejaia) an the southern and eastern border regions, including the Chaambi mountains area, south of Souk Ahras, near the Tunisian border.”
The DoS further warns that although most terrorist attacks are directed at Algerian authorities, civilians and other foreigners are still at risk. To make its point, DoS recalls the murder of a French citizen in the Kabylie region in September 2014.
In November, the DoS issued similar travel warning for Europe and other North African countries ahead of the holiday season, when travel tends to increase.
As of right now, the only two North African countries the U.S. says it’s safe to travel to are Egypt and Morocco.
And as for Europe, the State Department continues to alert “U.S. citizens to the heightened risk of terrorist attacks throughout Europe, particularly during the holiday season.”
