US embassy in Algeria returns to normalcy one month after terror attack

The U.S. embassy in Algeria is returning to a more normal routine one month after a terrorist attack on a natural gas facility in the country's western desert left at least 40 hostages dead, including three Americans.

The State Department issued an updated travel warning Tuesday announcing that it had lifted the authorized departure status for U.S. Embassy personnel and their dependents. The department allowed the departure from the capital, Algiers, for eligible family members following the Jan. 16 attack on the In Amenas BP oil facility and subsequent, credible kidnapping threats against westerners.

The country remains subject to a “high threat of terrorism and kidnappings,” however, with “the majority of terrorist attacks, including bombings, false roadblocks, kidnappings and ambushes occur[ing] in areas of the country east and south of Algiers.”

U.S. diplomats also remain constrained in their movements around the country.

“The U.S. government considers the potential threat to U.S. Embassy personnel assigned to Algiers sufficiently serious to require them to live and work under significant security restrictions,” the travel warning notes. “These practices limit, and may occasionally prevent, the movement of U.S. Embassy officials and the provision of consular services in certain areas of the country”

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