For recognition and reparation to the harkis
Audio 02:31
President Emmanuel Macron, September 20, 2021 at the Élysée.
He asked “forgiveness” on behalf of France from the harkis community.
© AFP / Gonzalo Fuentes
By: Aram Mbengue
3 min
Ahead of the national day of homage to the harkis celebrated every year on September 25 since 2003, the President of the Republic invited last Monday a few hundred representatives of the community to a reception at the Élysée.
During this ceremony, Emmanuel Macron made a strong gesture: he solemnly asked forgiveness on behalf of France from the harkis and their descendants.
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As a reminder, the harkis are the hundreds of thousands of Algerian auxiliaries who fought alongside the French army during the Algerian war of independence.
At the end of this war in 1962, they were let go by France.
Only a few thousand of them and their families were able to reach France, where they were welcomed in living conditions described as being unworthy and inhuman.
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