Algeria Files - Part 5
NT-S1 · Algerian Sahara aerial
France detonated 17 nuclear bombs in the Algerian Sahara. Four above ground. The last one in 1966. Algeria was independent by then.
February 13 1960: Gerboise Bleue. 70 kilotons. Four times the Hiroshima bomb. France told the world the test site had "a total absence of all signs of life." The town of Reggane, 50km away, had over 6,000 inhabitants. Tests continued four years after Algerian independence. The contaminated sites were never fully decontaminated. The maps of underground installations have never been handed over.
NT-S2 · French CEA document 1960
February 13 1960 · Reggane · Gerboise Bleue · 70 kilotons02 / 07
Gerboise Bleue. February 13 1960. 70 kilotons. Four times the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
France detonated its first atomic bomb at 7:04am on February 13 1960 at Reggane in the Algerian Sahara, 50km from a town of over 6,000 inhabitants. General Charles Ailleret, who commanded the operation, justified the site by claiming "the total absence of all signs of life." The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation documented this claim as false in January 2026.
Gerboise Bleue was followed by Gerboise Blanche on April 1, Gerboise Rouge on December 27 1960 and Gerboise Verte on April 25 1961. All four were atmospheric detonations. The codenames took the colours of the French flag. Samia Henni, The Funambulist Magazine, July 2022.
Source: Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, "The Toxic Legacy," January 2026 · The Funambulist Magazine, Samia Henni, July 2022
NT-S3 · Abandoned Reggane bunker
Independence July 5 1962 · Tests continued until February 1966 · Without Algerian consent03 / 07
Algeria gained independence July 5 1962. France continued nuclear tests on Algerian soil until February 1966.
After the four atmospheric tests at Reggane, France moved operations 700km east to In Ekker in the Hoggar mountain range, where 13 underground tests were conducted from 1961 through February 1966. The atmospheric tests had drawn international criticism after radioactive fallout was detected as far as Senegal, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso.
Algeria became independent on July 5 1962. France conducted underground nuclear tests on Algerian soil for four additional years without Algerian government consent. The Evian Accords of March 18 1962 had granted France rights to continue tests for a defined period, a clause Algeria subsequently contested. The Funambulist Magazine, July 2022.
Source: The Funambulist Magazine, Samia Henni, July 2022 · The Africa Report, September 2020
NT-S4 · Archival nuclear test photograph
April 1961 · Gerboise Verte · 300 French soldiers sent into contaminated zone deliberately04 / 07
300 French soldiers were deliberately ordered into the contaminated test zone after the Gerboise Verte detonation.
Le Parisien documented that in April 1961, 300 French soldiers were ordered into the contaminated zone of the Gerboise Verte nuclear test to study "the physiological and psychological effects produced on man by nuclear weapons, so as to obtain necessary information to physically and mentally prepare modern warriors." The soldiers were not informed of the purpose of their exposure.
This was documented by Hibakusha Worldwide from Le Parisien's investigation. The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation confirmed the documented exposure of French military personnel in January 2026. No compensation programme for affected soldiers was established until decades later, and even then access was limited.
Source: Le Parisien, cited in Hibakusha Worldwide · Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, January 2026
NT-S5 · Geiger counter on Saharan earth
10,000 directly exposed · Fallout reached Khartoum 3,200km away · Sites never decontaminated05 / 07
10,000 soldiers, workers and Tuareg people directly exposed. The sites have never been fully decontaminated.
Hibakusha Worldwide documented that approximately 10,000 soldiers, nuclear programme workers and local Tuareg people were directly exposed to radioactivity from the nuclear tests. Radioactive fallout spread across Algeria, Central and West Africa, and the Mediterranean. Increased radioactivity levels were detected in Khartoum, 3,200km from Reggane.
Radioactive equipment, vitrified sand and contaminated rocks were buried on site or left in the open. Algeria received sovereignty over the Reggane test site only in 1967, five years after independence. The site remains contaminated. The ICAN report cited by The Africa Report in September 2020 documented the ongoing contamination in detail.
Source: Hibakusha Worldwide, Reggane documentation · ICAN report cited in The Africa Report, September 2020
NT-S6 · Algerian diplomatic letter
Algeria's formal demands · ICAN recommendations · France's response on record06 / 07
Algeria formally demanded the plans of underground installations and the decontamination maps. France has not provided them.
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons recommended that France provide Algeria with the plans of the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission's underground installations under the Reggane plateau military base, as well as the plans of galleries excavated in the Tan Afella mountain. The Africa Report, September 2020.
France has not provided this documentation. Algeria received sovereignty over the contaminated test sites in 1967 without the technical information needed to understand the nature or scale of the contamination. The Nuclear Age Peace Foundation stated in January 2026 that radioactive sand continues to blow across North Africa, "carrying with it the indelible marks of colonial violence."
Source: ICAN report cited in The Africa Report, September 2020 · Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, January 2026
NT-S7 · Tuareg blue cloth on Saharan sand
The question. Not a claim.07 / 07
17 nuclear bombs. Four above ground. The last one four years after independence. The sites still contaminated. The maps never handed over. What does that silence cost, and who is paying it?
Tomorrow: Macron 2017 called colonialism "a crime against humanity." The Elysee 2021 stated "no question of repentance, no apology." The Stora report, 146 pages. The documented contradiction between what France said and what France did.
Some stories are buried on purpose. We dig.
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