PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that Algeria was “dishonoring itself” by holding French-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal, who was arrested in Algiers in November.
Sansal, a major figure in modern francophone literature, was arrested at the Algiers airport at a time of growing tensions between France and its former colony.
“Algeria, which we love so much and with which we share so many children and so many stories, is dishonoring itself by preventing a seriously ill man from receiving treatment,” Macron said in a speech to French ambassadors gathered at the Elysee Palace.
“And we who love the people of Algeria and its history urge its government to release Boualem Sansal,” he added.
He described Sansal as a “freedom fighter,” saying he was being held “in a totally arbitrary manner” by the Algerian authorities.
A critic of the Algerian authorities, Sansal, 75, has been imprisoned in Algeria on national security charges.
In mid-December, the Gallimard editing house said Sansal had been hospitalized, raising fears about the writer’s health in detention.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune first mentioned his arrest in late December, describing him as an “imposter” sent by France.
Sansal is known for his strong stances against both authoritarianism and Islamism, as well as being a forthright campaigner on freedom of expression issues.
In 2015, he won the Grand Prix du Roman of the French Academy, the guardians of the French language, for his book “2084: The End of the World,” a dystopian novel set in an Islamist totalitarian world in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust.
The controversy is taking place in a tense diplomatic context between France and Algeria, after Macron renewed French support for Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara during a landmark visit to the kingdom in 2024.
Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, is de facto controlled for the most part by Morocco.
But it is claimed by the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front, who are demanding a self-determination referendum and are supported by Algiers.
French President says Algeria ‘dishonors itself’ by holding novelist Boualem Sansal
https://arab.news/j9ms5
French President says Algeria ‘dishonors itself’ by holding novelist Boualem Sansal
- Boualem Sansal has been imprisoned in Algeria on national security charges since November
- Emmanuel Macron said Sansal was being held 'in a totally arbitrary manner' by the Algerian authorities
UK sanctions RSF commanders over links to mass killings in Sudan
- The government also pledged a further £21 million to provide food, shelter, health services, and protection for women and children
LONDON: Britain sanctioned senior commanders of Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Friday, over what it said were their links to mass killings, systematic sexual violence and deliberate attacks on civilians in the African country.
Abdul Rahim Hamdan Dagalo, the RSF Deputy Leader and brother of RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, as well as three other commanders that are suspected of involvement in these crimes, now face asset freezes and travel bans, the British government said.
“The atrocities taking place in Sudan are so horrific they scar the conscience of the world,” foreign minister Yvette Cooper said in the statement. “Today’s sanctions against RSF commanders strike directly at those with blood on their hands.”
The government also pledged a further £21 million to provide food, shelter, health services, and protection for women and children in some of the hardest-to-reach areas, the statement said.
Millions of people have been displaced by the war, which erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the RSF.
