Swiss tourist murdered during tour of Algeria

A Swiss tourist was murdered earlier this month in Algeria, according to authorities in Bern. Switzerland’s Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement to the Associated Press that it had been in contact with Algerian authorities about the “violent death” of an unnamed Swiss citizen on Oct. 11.

The woman was part of a tour group of five Swiss travellers visiting the north African country earlier this month. Algeria has opened up to tourists in recent years, aiming to put a reputation for instability and terrorism in the Sahara in the past.

However, Africa’s largest country retains a stringent visa process and remains relatively isolated to western tourists in comparison to its neighbours, Tunisia and Morocco, who have spent years courting and nurturing a large tourism industry.

After a bloody and brutal civil war in the 1990s Algeria has remained relatively stable, and was a notable exception to the wave of revolutions that swept the region, and started next door in Tunisia in 2010.

The country has in recent years enacted policies designed to lure visitors, streamlining the visa process specifically for tour groups interested in visiting the rippling sands and imposing rock formations of the Sahara, including the town of Djanet, a gateway to the Tassili n’Ajjer National Park. The death was the first killing of a foreigner in Algeria in several years.

In the last few decades, authorities have faced challenges policing the porous borders that delineate where Algeria ends and where neighbouring countries begin. In 2003, militants kidnapped 32 European tourists visiting southern Algeria.

In 2013, militants linked to al Qaeda stormed an oil refinery, where they held hundreds of Algerian and international workers hostage until security forces stormed the facility. At least 39 foreign hostages were killed.

Algerian authorities did not respond to a request for comment and had not issued a public statement as of Wednesday.