News from Algeria and Chad

[Chris Scott]

Is it sun spot activity or what? An attack in northeast Algeria - but N'Djamena at least is recovering...

Sahara Overland ~ News

Ch

[Caminando]

Very thorough, Chris. Thanks.

[Rebaseonu]

I'm not a foreign poilitics specialist but seems that involvement of French forces automatically makes this war to expand against all white people, including tourists. If that was upraising of people against their agressor, why the heck French are supporting the government? It looks like typical case when white people are backing somebody in their own economic interest.

[Roman]

Re location of the ambush in Alg near El Oued - wasn't it Bir Roumi, ca 18 miles north of Guemar (N 33° 42' 0'' E 6° 39' 0') ?

[Chris Scott]

Bir Roumi it probably was, well spotted.

It's been a couple of days so here is some more bad news:
Algérie*: L’axe Tamanrasset-Djanet interdit aux touristes

Optimistically interpreted, it only means the transit of tours between Hoggar (Tam) and Ajjer (Illizi wilaya) is forbidden, not tours down there full stop. So if you stay in one wilaya (province) you should be OK (you can see the province boundaries on Google Earth).
AFAIR, this transit was banned anyway following 2003, but tours were doing it as long as they kept off the Serenoute route (as we did a year ago and in December 06).

As the report says, les régions du Hoggar et du Tassili des Ajjers, considérées comme les principaux pôles touristique en Algérie, so it's more of a shame for first time fly-ins wanting to see the classic spots. In your own car there is plenty to see without doing Tam - Djanet.

Ch