ICAN To File A Lawsuit Against The French State Due To Nuclear Explosions In Algerian Desert

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) decided to file a lawsuit against the French state, at the level of the International Court of Justice in the Hague, a decision that came on the occasion of the 61st anniversary of the first French nuclear tests in southern Algeria.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons asked Algerians and defenders of the issue of compensation for victims of nuclear explosions, according to its statement, to support in filing this lawsuit against the French state, on July 5, 2021, the date that coincides with Algeria’s Independence and Youth Days.

For this purpose, the organization placed a digital form on the official website of its branch in Algeria, “ICAN Algeria”, to open the way for “the participation of a large number of Algerians and the friends of Algeria in the effort to file this lawsuit against the French state”.

The International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons is a coalition of several non-governmental organizations active in the field of nuclear disarmament. The Campaign won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2017 and is working on the codification of the French nuclear crime issue in the Algerian Sahara, which continued over the extended period between the beginning of 1960 and the end of 1967, it is funded by individual donors and by contributions from the European Union, Norway, Switzerland, Germany and the Vatican.

Last August, ICAN launched a call for pressurizing France to extract the waste resulting from the nuclear explosions it carried out in the Algerian desert, to ensure the health safety of current and future generations and preserve the environment.

The organization ICAN said, “France’s nuclear past should not remain buried under the sand. It is time to uncover the waste resulting from the nuclear tests that France conducted between 1960 and 1966 in the Algerian Sahara, to ensure the security and health safety of current and future generations. It is the outcome of a study conducted by the Director of the Armament Observatory, Patrice Bouveret, and the spokesperson for “ICAN France”, Jean-Marie Collin.

The areas that witnessed the French nuclear tests, in southern Algeria, are still subject to waste, especially radioactive ones, knowing that France carried out during the period between 1960 and 1966, fifty-seven (57) nuclear tests, including four air explosions in the Reggane region, and 13 underground explosions at In Ecker, 53 additional tests in Hamoudia, in the Reggane region, and 5 tests on plutonium in the In Ecker area, 30 km from the mountain, where the underground experiments were conducted.

According to historians and experts, the French nuclear tests in southern Algeria are among the worst crimes committed by colonial France for 132 years, adding this to the genocide committed by the colonialists in other regions in the north of the country.

France still refuses to clean up the areas contaminated with nuclear radiation in the south of the country, but it is also practising a systematic rejection of demands for compensation for the radiation-affected Algerians, although it has enacted a special law for that, the Morin Law, which created intentional obstacles that are difficult to overcome.