A few cars and signs celebrating the Algerian-Tunisian friendship: the reopening of the land border between the two countries after more than two years of closure is taking place smoothly near Tabarka on Friday, according to AFP journalists on the Tunisian side.
Tunisian authorities expect more than a million Algerian visitors this summer, the majority of them tourists, at the nine crossing points between the two countries reopened at midnight Thursday evening.
The decision to reopen the land borders, closed due to the Covid-19 health crisis, was announced on July 5 by President Abdelmajid Tebboune to his Tunisian counterpart Kais Saïed. The Melloula border post, near Tabarka (northwest), is the most important, according to Jamel Zrig, a national guard official, with 25% of Algerians entering via this border in 2019.
“Long live Algerian-Tunisian fraternity,” proclaimed a large banner in the border area.
Visitors had to have their Covid documents checked for compliance in a building topped with the inscription: “Welcome to our Algerian brothers, in their second country, Tunisia”.
In 2019, nearly 3 million Algerians came to Tunisia, i.e. a third of foreign visitors in this year marked by a strong recovery in tourism. They had chosen the neighboring country to visit, treat themselves or find family, while the ties between the two States have traditionally been very close since the Algerian war against the French colonial power (1954-1962).
Large Algerian cities, such as Annaba or Constantine, are not far from Tunisia’s border. Algerians particularly appreciate the seaside resorts of Sousse and Hammamet as well as the holy city of Kairouan and like to come and spend the end-of-year celebrations in Tunisia.
The land borders had been closed by Algeria on March 17, 2020, due to the Covid epidemic, remaining open only for emergencies.
