Algeria’s Djanet Oasis Captivates Visitors with Unique Charm

Men perform a traditional dance during the Sebeiba Festival, a
yearly celebration of Tuareg culture, in the oasis town of Djanet in
southeastern Algeria, July 29, 2023. (AFP Photo)
Men perform a traditional dance during the Sebeiba Festival, a yearly celebration of Tuareg culture, in the oasis town of Djanet in southeastern Algeria, July 29, 2023. (AFP Photo)
TT
20

Algeria’s Djanet Oasis Captivates Visitors with Unique Charm

Men perform a traditional dance during the Sebeiba Festival, a
yearly celebration of Tuareg culture, in the oasis town of Djanet in
southeastern Algeria, July 29, 2023. (AFP Photo)
Men perform a traditional dance during the Sebeiba Festival, a yearly celebration of Tuareg culture, in the oasis town of Djanet in southeastern Algeria, July 29, 2023. (AFP Photo)

The Algerian oasis of Djanet has attracted an increasing number of foreign tourists who have come to explore a unique desert landscape that brings inner peace and ultimate relaxation.

According to local media, since the authorities started granting visas on arrival in 2021, over 4,000 foreign tourists visited Djanet, 2,300 kilometers by road southeast of Algiers, and the Tassili n’Ajjer, a charming landmark enlisted as UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.

Known for its lunar-like landscape with eroded sandstone and orange and black rock forests, the Tassili n’Ajjer National Park has become a photographers’ favorite at sunset.

“Once you come to Djanet, you have to return... I’m here with two friends, and all they want is to come back as soon as possible,” 57-year-old French tourist Karim Benacine, who works for Universal Music Group, told AFP.

Another visitor from Paris, Antonine De Saint Pierre, 49, said: “I want to come here regularly so I can recharge. I will need that. Now that I know this place, I think I’m going to do this regularly.”

According to UNESCO’s website, the region of Tassili, a vast plateau of more than 70,000 square kilometers, houses “one of the most important groupings of prehistoric cave art in the world with over 15,000 drawings and sculptures from 6000 B.C. to the first centuries of the present era.”

These “record the climatic changes, the animal migrations and the evolution of human life on the edge of the Sahara.”

Last year, over 2,900 foreigners of 35 different nationalities, mostly Westerners, stayed in Djanet, compared with 1,200 in 2021. Algerians also find solace in their own national treasure, with 17,000 local visitors recorded last year.

Samira Ramouni, a 41-year-old psychologist from Algiers, believes that Djanet provides “inner peace and complete relaxation,” and helps to “disconnect, seek calm, learn new things, and rejuvenate, so you can recover the strength you need to face life challenges.”

Abdelkader Regagda, who runs a travel agency in Tamanrasset in southern Algeria, around 700 kilometers west of Djanet, sees that the authorities had opened “a great tourism route from Europe to the south of Algeria.”

The guide, who now organizes excursions in the Djanet area, says that “the trails are many and diverse” in the region.



10 Endangered Black Rhinos Sent from S.Africa to Mozambique

Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
TT
20

10 Endangered Black Rhinos Sent from S.Africa to Mozambique

Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)
Kenya Wildlife Services veterinarians and rangers rush to aid a sedated female black Rhinoceros that has been selected for translocation to the Segera Rhino Sanctuary from the Lake Nakuru National Park on June 07, 2025. (Photo by Tony KARUMBA / AFP)

Ten black rhinos have been moved from South Africa to Mozambique to secure breeding of the critically endangered animals that became locally extinct 50 years ago, conservationists said Thursday.

The five male and five female rhinos were transferred to Mozambique's Zinave National Park in a 48-hour road trip last week, said the Peace Parks Foundation, which took part in the translocation.

"It was necessary to introduce these 10 to make the population viable," communication coordinator Lesa van Rooyen told AFP.

The new arrivals will "secure the first founder population of black rhinos since becoming locally extinct five decades ago,” South Africa's environment ministry, which was also involved, said in a statement.

Twelve black rhinos had previously been sent from South Africa to Zinave in central Mozambique but the population was still not viable for breeding, Van Rooyen said.

Twenty-five white rhinos, which are classified as less threatened, were also translocated in various operations.

The global black rhino population dropped by 96 percent between 1970 and 1993, reaching a low of only 2,300 surviving in the wild, according to the International Rhino Foundation.

Decades of conservation efforts allowed the species to slowly recover and the population is estimated at 6,421 today.

Once abundant across sub-Saharan Africa, rhino numbers fell dramatically due to hunting by European colonizers and large-scale poaching, with their horns highly sought after on black markets particularly in Asia.

Mozambique's population of the large animals was depleted during the 15-year civil war, which ended in 1992 and pushed many people to desperate measures to "survive in very difficult circumstances", van Rooyen said.

Years of rewilding efforts have established Zinave as Mozambique’s only national park home to the "Big Five" game animals -- elephant, rhino, lion, leopard and buffalo.