Algeria Reopens Its Land Borders With Tunisia And Libya

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune ordered the reopening of the closed land borders with Tunisia and Libya, to carry out export operations that take place in hard currency, while the transit movement between the two countries remains closed for travelers.
Prime Minister Ayman Benabderahmane informed Interior Minister Kamal Beljoud that President Abdelmadjid Tebboune approved the return of commercial traffic with Tunisia and Libya. It was decided to open the border crossings for commercial purposes, to accompany the economic dealers active in the field of export, and to overcome the obstacles that hinder the export of Algerian goods, especially towards neighboring countries.

The Ministry of Trade had received correspondence from economic operators with the aim of opening land borders with neighboring countries such as Tunisia and Libya, in order to enable them to ward off the difficulties they face when exporting their goods to the Tunisian and Libyan markets through Tunisian soil, where exporters are forced to unload the cargo on the Algerian side and repack it in trucks coming from Tunisia.
In his correspondence, the Prime Minister warned that “the approval of the President of the Republic includes the reopening of all border crossings for legal export operations that take place in hard currency, except for those that take place in the framework of barter activity with the countries of Mali and Niger”.

Algeria had decided in March 2020, to close all its land, air and sea borders, as a precautionary measure to confront the Corona virus pandemic, and over the course of months, it eased the closing procedures in line with developments in the health situation, with the partial return of flights, and the same thing with cruises, and for the time being, it has kept its land borders closed, noting that the largest land movement is with the Tunisian side.

During the visit that President Tebboune paid to Tunisia at the end of last year, he stressed that closing the borders with the eastern neighbor is not a political or security decision, but rather a health decision, noting that the pandemic was strong in both countries, which resulted in taking the necessary precautions.

Subsequently, the judicial authorities issued an exceptional decision to open the land border with Tunisia, according to which Algerians residing in Tunisia and Tunisians residing in Algeria are permitted to move between the two neighboring countries.