Algeria to build security wall along Libya border

Algeria looks set to build a 120 kilometre-long wall along its border with Libya, Algerian and Libyan media sources reported.

The wall along the 600-mile border is another step in a list of upgraded security measures Algeria is undertaking to improve its counter-terrorism initiatives. Measuring three metres in height, and lined with barbed wire, it is hoped the wall will curb the movement of Daesh militants and arms smugglers from entering the Sahara from Libya.

Despite similar plans surfacing last year, no immediate action has been taken by the Algerian government to begin construction of the wall. However reports of an incursion of around 700 armed fighters and criminals alongside attacks and kidnappings in the south increase chances of the construction of the wall.

It is thought the wall will alter Algeria’s position as a regional mediator. According to Geoff Porter, president of North Africa Risk Consulting, Algeria will attempt to avoid “trespassing on another sovereign territory” with the aims of solely protecting itself rather than intervening in the pursuit of external threats.

Tunisia has also announced plans to build its own 100-mile-long security fence along the country’s eastern border with Libya in light of the attacks carried out by Daesh last year at a beach resort in Sousse and a museum in Tunis. The perpetrators of the attacks were reported to have been trained in camps in Libya.