France conducted 17 nuclear tests in Algeria’s Sahara Desert between 1960 and 1966, at Reggane and In Ekker, including four atmospheric and 13 underground tests.
The first test, “Gerboise Bleue,” on February 13, 1960, had a yield of 60–70 kilotons, roughly four times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb.
These tests caused significant radioactive fallout, impacting local populations, including Tuareg nomads, farmers, and villagers, as well as French military personnel.
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Estimates of the death toll and health impacts vary widely and are contested. Algerian sources, such as Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum in 2021, claim the tests caused around 42,000 deaths and injured thousands due to radiation-related illnesses, including cancers, birth defects, and miscarriages.
However, the French Ministry of Defense estimates 27,000 Algerians were affected, while Algerian nuclear physicist Abdul Kadhim al-Aboudi suggests up to 60,000 people in the region were impacted.
These figures are not independently verified, and precise death tolls remain uncertain due to limited documentation and restricted access to French archives.
The tests, particularly the Béryl incident in 1962, where an underground explosion was not fully contained, released radioactive material, exposing soldiers and local communities to high radiation levels.
Radioactive waste buried in the desert, often uncovered by winds, has continued to contaminate the environment, with effects persisting across generations.
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Reports indicate ongoing health issues, including elevated cancer rates, blindness, and congenital disabilities in the region.
France’s 2010 Morin law aimed to compensate victims, but only one Algerian, a soldier stationed at a test site, has received compensation out of 50 claims, with no residents of the affected desert regions compensated.
Algeria continues to demand transparency, including maps of buried radioactive waste, and reparations, which France claims to have partially provided. The lack of accountability and cleanup remains a point of tension in France-Algeria relations, exacerbated by the use of contaminated sites as detention camps in the 1990s.