Sahara
Day 69: I-n-Guezzam

The BBC advised against operating there, and the Foreign Office insisted that if we go we should take armed bodyguards. Even the artesian well at the border, marked so hopefully in blue on my Michelin map, has the word 'sulfureuse' alongside it.
The country that fought a bloody civil war to win its independence from France in 1962 is currently involved in another, just as bloody, which began in 1992, when the military-dominated, socialist regime cancelled an election which they feared was going to be won by an Islamist opposition party. The opposition militarised itself as the GIA (Armed Islamic Group), and it is estimated that in less than ten years more than 100,000 people have died on both sides.
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PALIN'S GUIDES
- Series: Sahara
- Day: 69
- Country/sea: Algeria
- Place: I-n-Guezzam
- Book page no: 192
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