In Amenas (Arabic: عين أمناس,[2] ‘In ’Amanās) is a town and commune in eastern Algeria, bordering with Libya.

The municipality had 7,385 inhabitants in 2008,[1] up from 5.302 in 1998,[3] with an annual growth rate of 3.4%[1] According to the Algerian novelist Mouloud Mammeri the name is a Tuareg word which means "place of camel drivers.

Winters remain warm and brief at daytime but nights can be quite cold, with average low temperatures below 4 °C (39 °F) during January, the coolest month of the year.

In Amenas averages annual rainfall of only 23.2 mm (0.91 in) as the town is located within the large central hyperarid core of the Sahara Desert.

At least 39 foreign hostages, along with an Algerian security guard, were killed when the facility was stormed after a four day stand-off.