Beni Ounif

Introducing Beni Ounif

This totally unremarkable little border town used to give travellers coming from Morocco their first glimpse of Algeria, but since the closure of the border, it sees much less trade. The town is small – only about half a kilometre from one end to the other, centred on one long main street – so there’s no difficulty in finding things.

There are two banks here, a Banque Nationale d’Algérie and a Banque de l’Agriculture et du Développement Rural, both off the main drag, but neither exchange travellers cheques. There’s also a petrol station.

The road between here and Béchar still bears some of the few remaining signs of the battle for Algerian independence. Right along this border, some distance in from the actual line, the French built a continuous barrier of barbed wire some 5m wide. The whole section was patrolled by soldiers stationed at forts, each built in sight of the next, and the line was more than 1000km long on this side of the country. The idea, largely successful, was to isolate the Algerian nationalists from any support from Morocco. Most of the forts are still there today; so is much of the barbed wire.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009