President Macron wants to distance himself from France's colonial past. However, the crimes committed in Algeria over a period of 132 years have not been forgotten and Paris still does not want to apologise.
During Algeria’s war of independence (1954 - 1962), 1.5-million Algerians lost their lives seeking freedom.
It was a 15-day campaign of violence.
Martial law was imposed, 44 villages were destroyed and French troops indiscriminately murdered men, women, children and the elderly.
France also carried out 17 nuclear tests in the Algerian desert in the 1960s.
Radioactivity caused the deaths of an estimated 42,000 Algerians, as well as extensive damage to the environment.
France incessantly tried to erase Algeria’s identity.
It closed mosques as well as religious schools, and enacted discriminatory laws to usurp the locals’ land.
The colonial authorities frequently resorted to torture - including electric shocks and the use of water wells as prisons.
In 1880 - 1881, France took the skulls of 37 Algerian resistance fighters and kept them in the Museum of Mankind in Paris.
They were returned over a century later.
France carried out the Seine massacre in 1961.
Police shot Algerians in Paris protesting the occupation of their country - killing an estimated 200-300 people. The authorities tried to cover it up by throwing the victims’ bodies in the Seine River.
France never apologised for its crimes.
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This is the story of how Belgium’s Leopold II colonised, exploited, murdered, enslaved and maimed the people of the Congo - and how Brussels’ dark past is catching up with it today.
Between 1885-1908, Belgium’s King Leopold II was responsible - directly or indirectly - for the deaths of 10-15mn people, in what’s today known as the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Belgium joined the Scramble for Africa in the late 1800’s. Leopold colonised the Congo while maintaining that it was a civilising mission to spread Christianity.
Sudan is home to more ancient pyramids than its neighbour Egypt! Despite years of tampering and looting, these unique pyramids still stand tall today. So which ones are older and hold more secrets of the African continent?
The Nubian people are to thank - an ancient community living by the Nile since 5,000 BC. They once ruled both Egypt and Sudan in what is known as the Kush Kingdom.