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Algeria: Unable to govern, unpopular regime uses repression to stay in power
(Photo: Policemen in plain clothes assaulting an elderly man in Algiers) - The UN voiced alarm Tuesday at reports of sexual violence in detention and disproportionate use of force against protesters in Algeria, calling for investigations into all alleged abuses. The...
Algeria: After attacking democracy activists and opposition parties, regime now targeting trade unions
(Photo: Algeria president Tebboune (left) and his Prime Minister Djerad) - Algeria's government warned trade unions Thursday against "exploitation" by "subversive" groups, as it seeks to calm mounting anger amid a social crisis ahead of elections next month. The...
Algerian regime powerless in front of worsening social and labor climate, responds with repression only
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Sunday urged his government to open "a dialogue" with social partners to appease mounting social anger. Unemployment at 15 percent, soaring prices and shortages of basic food items have all added to turmoil caused by a deep...
Algeria: Opposition icon Karim Tabbou released by court
Algerian authorities on Thursday released on probation a leading opposition activist opposed to the country's forthcoming elections, a prisoners' support group said. Karim Tabbou, a key figure in demonstrations that forced longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika to...
Algerian regime launches frontal assault on civil society
It’s hunting season against journalists and free thinkers Being a journalist or a whistleblower is a dangerous job in Algeria. The regime has zero tolerance for people who report facts. And even if you are like Noureddine Tounsi, whose crime was to report criminals,...
Algeria: Paranoiac regime sees conspiracies everywhere
Algerian security services said Tuesday they had arrested eight people linked to the Hirak pro-democracy protest movement over an allegedly foreign-financed criminal association. "The security services arrested a criminal organisation of eight people aged from 26 to...
Algeria: Remembering Amazigh’s Black Spring
By Abdellah Cheballa - Twenty years ago, an Algerian teenager's death in police custody in the heartland of the North African country's Berber minority sparked an uprising that helped blaze the trail for future protests. Massinissa Guermah, a high school student, was...
MENA region more vulnerable to Covid-19 with the start of Ramadan
The World Health Organization expressed concern Wednesday that the Covid-19 pandemic could worsen in the Middle East and North Africa during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Detected cases of Covid infection in the region rose 22% last week, while deaths rose 17%,...
Algeria: Human rights groups demand release of 23 political prisoners on hunger strike
Eight Algerian human rights groups warned on Thursday that 23 detained people on hunger strike could die, and called for their immediate release. "Don't let them die... Some of them have begun facing serious health complications. Let us act before it is too late,"...
Algeria: Labor unrest intensifies as general prices rise. Country’s outlook compromised
Stress in he Algerian labor market has been intensifying in the face of a dormant government. Government action in the North African country has been dormant, with no policy directions coming from either the presidency or the prime minister's office. All government...
Algeria: Political prisoners launch hunger strike
Twenty-three people detained after taking part in a protest march in the Algerian capital last week have gone on hunger strike, a prisoners' support group said Saturday. The CNLD said they launched their action on Wednesday in El Harrach jail, after being detained on...
Algeria: Meet the real strongman: And he is not president
By Redouane Benmehdi - A recent analysis from investigative site AlgeriePart has caught our attention in that it unveiled who really controls power in Algeria. It turns out, according to AlgeriePart, the current Chief of Staff of the Algerian Army, officially...
Algeria withdraws law stripping citizenship to opponents abroad, big loss for regime hardliners
(Photo: Ultra-hardliner Justice Minister Belkacem Zeghmati) The Algerian regime backed away from issuing a controversial law that would have stripped political opponents abroad of their Algerian nationality. he draft law was presented Wednesday, 3 March by the...
Algeria: 15-year-old boy accuses police of sex abuse
Algerian police said Sunday they had launched an investigation after videos on social media claiming officers sexually abused a teenage boy arrested during anti-government protests sparked fury. The 15-year-old was arrested on Saturday in Algiers, the capital of the...
Algeria: Guards and one inmate die in freak accident in Bejaia prison
Seven Algerian prison guards and an inmate died of suffocation Wednesday in a septic tank accident at a prison in the country's northeast, justice minister Belkacem Zeghmati said. The men had entered the tank at the Oued Ghir prison outside Bejaia in order to clean...
Algeria: Journalist Abdelhakim Setouane gets six months in prison
A court in Algeria's capital Monday sentenced journalist Abdelhakim Setouane to six months in jail for defamation of a former speaker of the lower house of parliament, his lawyer said. Abdellah Heboul told AFP that the journalist, who has been detained since October...
Algeria: Hirak launches fifth week of anti-regime protest
Pro-democracy protesters took to the streets in Algeria Friday, with authorities making arrests in the capital and dispersing demonstrators in other cities, a rights group and a journalist said. In Algiers, where thousands took part in the weekly Hirak protest...
Algeria: Journalist Drareni heads back to court after Supreme Court orders retrial
By Abdellah Cheballah with Philippe Agret - Prominent journalist Khaled Drareni, a symbol of the struggle for a free press in Algeria, is to face a retrial after the supreme court accepted his lawyers' cassation appeal on Thursday. "The supreme court overturned the...
Moroccan farmers in Algeria’s Laaroda oasis: Victims of a neglected conflict
Moroccan farmers in an isolated oasis on the Algerian border are bearing the brunt of regional tensions after Algiers expelled them from date groves they have worked for generations. The border between the arch-rivals has been closed since 1994, but Algeria had...
Algeria: Hirak movement strengthens, Algerians confirm disconnect with regime
[Photo by Le Mating]- Thousands protested in Algiers Friday to demand press freedom and judicial independence, as the Hirak pro-democracy movement keeps up its weekly demonstrations, despite a ban on gatherings due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Hirak protest...
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