He was a nature photographer who routinely went to remote places like this. There really hadn’t been much terrorist activity in Algeria recently, although certainly Algeria-linked terrorists have been picked up in both Spain and France lately.
I think people aren’t noticing the truly alarming fact that Algeria is very, very close to Europe, and is not currently involved in any overt war either with France or with some other Islamic country. This means that the jihadis have taken another step closer to internationalizing their terror beyond the ME, and picking somebody like this - of no political or military or even media significance - is also an ominous step further.
Looks like the entire northern coast of Africa (minus Egypt) has become “terrorist territory”.