France's Macron heads to Algeria in bid to heal colonial-era wounds

French President Emmanuel Macron is heading to Algeria for a three-day official visit aimed at addressing two major challenges: boosting future economic relations while seeking to heal wounds inherited from the colonial era, 60 years after the North African country won its independence from France.

Accompanied by seven ministers, Macron will be met at the airport in the capital Algiers by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune at around 3:00 pm (1400 GMT).

The visit comes less than a year after a monthslong diplomatic crisis between the two countries that stirred up post-colonial tensions and as war in Ukraine has reinforced Algeria's status as a key partner to provide gas to the European continent.

In recent years, Macron has made unprecedented steps to acknowledge torture and killings by French troops during Algeria's 1954-62 war of independence, in a bid to appease the two countries' still rancorous relations. Yet the series of symbolic gestures has fallen short of an apology from France for its actions during the war — a longstanding demand from Algeria.

Macron is to meet Thursday with Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune at the presidential El Mouradia palace.

In a phone call with Tebboune Saturday, he said the trip will help "deepen the bilateral relationship," according to the Elysée. He expressed France's support after deadly wildfires in eastern Algeria.

This is the second time Macron has been to Algeria as president. During a brief stop in December 2017, he called for a "partnership between equals." Months before that, during a trip to Algiers as a presidential candidate, he called colonization a "crime against humanity."

Macron, who is the first French president born after the end of Algeria's brutal seven-year war of independence in 1962, has promised a reckoning of colonial-era wrongs. The country was occupied by France for 132 years.

In 2018, Macron recognized the responsibility of the French state in the 1957 death of a dissident in Algeria, Maurice Audin, admitting for the first time the military's use of systematic torture during the war. He later made a key decision to speed up the declassification of secret documents related to the war, amid other gestures.