France Used Toxic Gas to Kill Algerians in The Caves’ War

Despite the efforts of the French authorities to hide the atrocities of French colonialism in Algeria, these crimes are leaked from time to time, declaring themselves, exposing the inhumane practices that the occupation army imposed on the Algerians for 132 years.

The last chapter of these crimes, which do not have a statute of limitations, is what was known as the “Cave Sanctions” in which the French occupation army used toxic gases in caves where the Mujahideen (freedom fighters) were hiding during the revolution, an act that contradicts the Geneva Protocol, which France signed in 1925.

This issue has turned into a public opinion in France these days, where the French quarterly review (XXI), the independent journalist Claire Billet published on April 1st a lengthy investigation about the use of toxic gases by the French army against the soldiers of the National Liberation Front in the caves, in the Aures Mountains, the north of Constantine region and the Djurdjura mountains.

On April 7, a press conference was organized at the Human Rights League building in France, devoted to discussing the file of the “Caves’ War” used by the French army during the Algerian war, followed by a telegram to the French Press Agency (France Press) which carried an appeal to historians and journalists to the French authorities to open the military archive, which remains close and secret about the use of chemical weapons by the French army in the caves during the Algerian war.

In this context, the two historians Christophe Lafay and (president of the Josette and Maurice Audin Association) Pierre Mansat signed an article in the journal “Libation”, while a program about this file was broadcast on “France culture” and “TV5MONDE” channels prepared by the journalist Claire Billet, about “large underground networks in which the French army used toxic gases against the elements of the National Liberation Front”.

A week later, the French newspaper “Le Monde” returned to publish an in-depth investigation prepared by the journalist, Frédéric Bobin, about this file, which is one of the secrets of the “Algerian war” whose archive is still missing from historians, as the newspaper revealed that the French army used toxic gas on a large scale against the Algerians hiding in caves from 1956 to 1961, however, the French authorities conceal this heinous crime, by denying access to the archives.

The newspaper cites some of what was published in the magazine, which are unpublished testimonies of former French soldiers recounting their role in the “caves’ war” Among the “special weapons” used were grenades, candles and rockets loaded with toxic gas, especially CN2D, which contains DM, a toxic chemical substance which irritates the eyes, lungs and mucous membranes resulting in various diseases like headaches, nausea and vomiting, and can become fatal indoors.

Referring in this regard to an operation in 1959 in Tolga (near Biskra), and here an ex-soldier Jan Vidalenc, 85, said in an interview with the journalist Claire Billet, that he used this gas in the face of FLN elements, the next day ten bodies were discovered; “We fired gas at the Algerians” which is the same operations of the French army between 1844-1845 during the invasion of Algeria against the resistance loyal to Emir Abdelkader.

Such criminal practices were regular in the operations of the occupation army, which was confirmed by another soldier (presented with his first name “Yves”), 86, who admitted that he participated in 95 such operations. He also indicated that gas was also injected to make the caves unusable over time due to gas deposits. This was stated by “Yves”, who said; “We should have exposed all this before, because how many civilians had to return to the caves?

Historians Christophe Lafay, who specializes in the use of chemical weapons in decolonization conflicts, Gilles Manceron, a specialist in French colonialism, journalist Claire Billet et Pierre Mansat, president of the Josette and Maurice Audin Association, assert that the “Caves’ War” was designed by the Special Weapons Staff of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces to complete the “neutralization” of the fighters of the National Liberation Army, but its toxins are still on the walls of caves, harming kids, the fauna and the flora even today.