Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Thursday appointed a new foreign minister to replace veteran Ramtane Lamamra as part of a cabinet reshuffle.
Ramtane Lamamra, 71, in office since June 2021 after a first stint at the head of Algerian diplomacy between 2013 and 2017, was replaced by Ahmed Attaf, who at 69 returns to a ministry he had led between 1996 and 1999 , according to the Presidency of the Republic.
The appointment of a new head of diplomacy in Algeria comes in a context of high tensions with neighboring Morocco, in particular over the question of the disputed territory of Western Sahara.
The Western Sahara conflict has pitted Morocco against the Polisario front, supported by Algeria, since the disengagement in 1975 of Spain, the former colonial power.
The Polisario calls for a self-determination referendum under the aegis of the UN while Rabat promotes autonomy under its sovereignty.
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On Monday, the newspaper
Le Matin d'Algérie
questioned the absence of Ramtane Lamamra during an important two-day visit to Algiers, on March 12 and 13, by the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell.
"
However, it was up to him (Lamamra, editor's note) to be responsible for welcoming him
" to Algiers, recalled
Le Matin
, wondering about possible "
health problems
" of the minister, a "
disgrace
" or disagreements with President Tebboune.
The newspaper recalled the efforts of Ramtane Lamamra to "
restore some luster to a moribund diplomacy inherited from (Abdelaziz) Bouteflika
", the former president who led Algeria for twenty years until his resignation in the spring of 2019 under pressure of the Hirak pro-democracy movement.
In addition, at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Abderrahmane Hamad succeeds Abderezak Sebgag and at the Ministry of Transport, Youcef Cherfa, a former Minister of Labor, takes the place of Kamel Beldjoud.
