Algeria recoups colonial era secret archives from South Africa, convention

Algerian authorities have recently sealed a convention with South Africa to recoup classified documents that concern the era of the Algerian Revolution (1954-1962).

Algerian authorities have recently sealed a convention with South Africa to recoup classified documents that concern the era of the Algerian Revolution (1954-1962).

The secret documents comprise details about movements of commanders of the liberation war, and which had been transferred at that time to South Africa in sort of reports to the CIA bureau there, before being attributed to French authorities as a kind of support in the war against Algerian revolutionaries. 

The convention Algeria signed with South Africa falls in the frame of the North African nation’s efforts to recoup the archive of the colonial era from friendly countries, including Spain, regarding the obstinacy of French authorities not to give most claimed archive to Algeria.

Meanwhile, the sources confirmed that Algerian authorities have managed recently to get back from Turkey precious archives relating to the Ottoman era (18th and 19th centuries), which France rejected to attribute.