Merkel arrives in Algiers at 1700 GMT before holding meetings with Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal and, on Tuesday, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Previously, popular anger was fanned on New Year's Eve 2015-16, when large groups of mostly North African men sexually assaulted and robbed hundreds of women in the western German city of Cologne. Merkel, as a sweetener to the North African countries, has pledged closer economic ties and more security cooperation in fighting jihadists, billed as efforts to discourage people from fleeing their countries in the first place. She promoted similar cooperation efforts last October during visits to major migrant transit countries Mali and Niger, which border Algeria. German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere last year visited all three Maghreb countries to urge better cooperation on repatriations.

Source: The North Africa Journal February 20, 2017 12:21 UTC