The Red Jerboa is the code name for a French nuclear test conducted on December 27, 1960 near the town of Reggane in the middle of the Algerian Sahara, a few kilometres west of the first explosion (the Blue Jerboa). Its height reached 50 meters, and its power reached 2 to 3 kilotons. It was used For testing, metal machines, old cannons, trucks, in addition to goats and mice. The samples were then taken to hospital laboratories in Paris.
“The “Red Jerboa” bombing is among the French nuclear explosions in Algeria that extended until after independence, specifically from 1960 until 1966, when it conducted 17 nuclear explosion tests, which it carried out in several locations in the Algerian desert, specifically in “Reggane” and “In Eker.” Its disastrous effects on the population and the environment continue to this day.”
Despite the passage of 63 years since the “Red Jerboa” bombing, France is still evading responsibility and insisting on keeping the file of nuclear tests in complete secrecy, despite numerous attempts by stakeholders to accurately determine the locations of burial of nuclear waste, find appropriate solutions for the final rehabilitation of the damaged sites, and implement all procedures necessary to protect the population concerned, the environment and the aquatic, animal and plant resources, as well as to involve the Algerian victims in a real process, similar to that carried out in recent years in Polynesia, to help identify and compensate victims of nuclear tests.
On this occasion, SHOAA encourages the Algerian government to complete the process, which began on September 20, 2017, to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). This makes it possible, on the one hand, to promote non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament and, on the other hand, to take measures to rehabilitate former test sites and provide assistance to victims of nuclear tests. It will also make it possible to request assistance (technical, humanitarian, financial, etc.) from other States parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
SHOAA also calls on the Algerian state to use all its legal and diplomatic capacities to help the victims of nuclear tests restore their moral and material rights and to allow every person seeking compensation or their relatives to view or obtain from the administration an identical copy of the archive of the French nuclear tests in the Algerian Sahara from 1960 to 1966.
On the other hand, SHOAA calls on the French government to lift the confidentiality of the files related to the explosions and nuclear tests in Algeria for review by the international organizations that supervise the monitoring, and not to use defence and national security secrets as an excuse, and to submit the complete list of the places where the waste was buried to the Algerian authorities, specifying their locations. Describing buried materials, and publishing data related to contaminated areas.
“SHOAA organization calls on the French government to submit plans for the underground facilities of the Reggane Military base to the Algerian authorities, as well as plans for various places in “In Eker” and to clean up these areas along with the Algerian authorities.”
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