Paris to compensate more relatives of Algerian Harki fighters

Paris finally paved the way towards paying reparations to more relatives of Algerians who sided with France in their country's independence war but were brutally held in deadly camps.

Called Harkis, over 200,000 Algerians fought with the French army in the bloody eight-year-long war against Algerian resistance fighters from 1954 to 1962.

As the war ended, the French government left "loyalist fighters" to fend for themselves, despite earlier promises it would look after them.

Trapped in Algeria, many were massacred as the new authorities took revenge for their betrayal.

Thousands of others who fled to France were held in camps, often with their families, in deplorable conditions that led to the deaths of dozens of children, most of them babies, according to a recent AFP investigation.

In 2021, French President Emmanuel Macron asked for "forgiveness" on behalf of his country for abandoning the Harkis and their families after Algerian independence from French colonial rule. 

Last year, a law was passed to recognise the state's responsibility for the "indignity of the hosting and living conditions on its territory", which caused "exclusion, suffering and lasting trauma", and recognised the right to reparations for those who had lived in 89 of the internment camps.

But following a new report, 45 new sites - including military camps, slums and shacks - were added on Monday to that list of places the Harkis and their relatives were forced to live, the government said.

"Up to 14,000 (more) people could receive compensation after transiting through one of these structures," it said, signalling possible reparations for both the Harkis and their descendants.

Secretary of State Patricia Miralles said the decision hoped to "make amends for a new injustice, including in regions where until now the prejudices suffered by the Harkis living there were not recognised".

Unlike his precedents, Macron has shown, since his first candidacy in 2017, a strong interest in tackling "the crimes against humanity" his country committed in Algeria and elsewhere.

However, his policy regarding the colonial legacy of France remains widely criticised for being a policy of "en même temps" (at the same time) as he always attempts to find somewhat a silver lining in France's brutal colonial history in Algeria.