British Prime Minister David Cameron visited Algeria on Wednesday to strike a new security partnership between the two countries following the deadly hostage crisis at a Sahara Desert gas plant.

His visit comes less than two weeks after 37 foreign hostages including six Britons were killed when Islamists stormed the In Amenas facility.

British Prime Minister David Cameron arrived in Algeria on Wednesday in the wake of this month's hostage crisis at a gas plant deep in the Sahara in which several Britons were killed.

The first visit by a British premier since Algeria won independence from France in 1962 comes less than two weeks after 37 foreign hostages were killed when Islamists stormed the In Amenas facility and in the attack's aftermath.

British Prime Minister David Cameron will head to Algeria on Wednesday for a two-day visit in the wake of the hostage crisis that left some 37 foreigners dead including several Britons, his office confirmed.

Cameron is expected to meet with his Algerian counterpart Abdelmalek Sellal as well as President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Downing Street said Tuesday.

Hundreds of Malians from the rebel-held northern town of Kidal have fled towards the Algerian border, the U.N.'s refugee agency said Tuesday, adding that some had even crossed the officially closed frontier.

Residents had fled the town "to villages further north, even closer to the Algerian border," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters in Geneva. "Others have crossed the border into Algeria."

Tunisia has deployed special forces near oil and gas sites in the far south, close to the Algerian border, in the wake of the In Amenas hostage-taking attack, security sources said on Tuesday.

The deployment, which began over the weekend, will reinforce military units already stationed in the desert "in order to protect oil and gas sites around the region," said a security source in southern Tunisia.

Two security guards protecting a gas pipeline have been killed and seven others wounded in an attack by Islamists southeast of the Algerian capital, local residents said on Monday.

The guards, who were attacked late on Sunday in at their quarters in Djebahia, 125 kilometers (80 miles) southeast of Algiers, were part of an armed civilian unit protecting a gas pipeline in the Bouira region.

French-led troops battling Islamist militants in Mali will soon be near the fabled northern city of Timbuktu, visiting French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said in Chile on Saturday.

The French and Malian troops are currently "around Gao and soon near Timbuktu," he said in a speech to the French community of Santiago.

Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil on Saturday confirmed the death of a fourth Norwegian employee at the In Amenas gas plant hostage-taking in Algeria this month.

"Today Statoil received the sad news that one more of our dear and highly valued colleagues who has been missing since the terrorist attack at In Amenas in Algeria is now confirmed dead," the group said in a statement.

The death of a second Malaysian worker in the Algerian hostage crisis has been confirmed after his body was identified by his dental records and a tattoo, the Malaysian Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

The man, Tan Ping Wee, had been unaccounted for since Islamist militants attacked the In Amenas gas plant in the north African desert on January 16.

U.S. President Barack Obama voiced support Friday for France's military intervention in Mali and vowed to work with French counterpart Francois Hollande to tackle extremism across North Africa.

The two presidents discussed other "shared security concerns," including Algeria, Libya and Syria, during telephone talks, the White House said in a statement.