FOCUS ON
ALGERIA
Click here to sign up for free weekly email
Email recaps are sent every Thursdays.
Sign up today
Podcast: Covid-19 in the Maghreb region as of mid-November 2020
In this brief podcast recorded on 12 November 2020, MEA Risk's Arezki Daoud provides an update on the Coronavirus in the Maghreb region. The state of the Covid-19 epidemic in the Maghreb looks rather bleak as we are reaching the mid-point of November 2020. As in...
Algeria: War hero and anti-regime icon dies from Covid-19
Lakhdar Bouregaa, a highly respected veteran of Algeria's war of independence against France and a key figure in an anti-regime protest movement, has died at the age of 87. “Lakhdar Bouregaa is now under God's protection," his son Hani Bouregaa wrote on Facebook late...
Algeria: Government finally recognizes president has Covid
Algeria’s poor communications and PR skills The Algerian authorities have been so bad at communicating the illness of President Tebboune from the outset. First, they said the president decided to isolate himself voluntarily. Then a day later he was transferred to...
Algeria: Failed referendum with another doctored election
Algerians approved a revised version of the North African country's constitution with two thirds of votes cast, the electoral commission said Monday, after record low turnout in the previous day's referendum. The vote had widely been seen as a regime manoeuvre to...
Algeria: President Tebboune’s health conditions worsen, prompts evacuation to Germany
In the evening of Wednesday, 28 October, Algerian President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune was transferred to Germany for “in-depth medical examinations on the recommendation of the medical staff”, according to a statement from the Presidency of the Republic. Previously, the...
While Algeria needs hospitals, schools and cash, its leaders are opening Africa’s biggest mosque
Algeria's Grand Mosque, the world's third-biggest and Africa's largest, will host its first public prayers on Wednesday, a year and a half after construction was completed. Known locally as the Djamaa El-Djazair, the modernist structure extends across 27.75 hectares...
Algeria: President Tebboune admitted to military hospital, authorities say ‘it’s no big deal’
First reaction by Arezki Daoud: No one goes to a hospital just to isolate The Algerian authorities want us to believe President Tebboune is simply fine. A number of presidential staff recently tested positive to Covid-19, and so naturally, precautions have to be taken...
Algeria: Actresses launch campaign against murder of women in Algeria
Algerian actresses angered by murders and violence targeting women have launched a campaign to fight the phenomenon -- but not everyone has welcomed their initiative. After the gruesome rape, torture and murder of a 19-year-old woman sparked angry demonstrations...
Algeria’s opponents of the yes-vote for the new constitution banned from campaigning
(Photo: pro-vote banner in Algiers proclaiming: "we vote for us and our children) - Two weeks after the start of campaigning for the constitutional referendum, Algerian authorities from the ministry of the interior and provincial governments, have only authorized the...
Algeria: After bleeding his country dry, oligarch Ali Haddad faces grim future
Several years ago, the Algerian authorities turned a blind eye to the acquisition of a luxury hotel in Barcelona by disgraced Algerian oligarch Ali Haddad. It did so because the regime at its highest echelon was deeply tied to the world of crooked businessmen that...
Algeria: Regime’s intolerance for LGBT community
Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged Algeria to immediately release two men imprisoned for homosexuality and to void the convictions of all 44 people prosecuted in the same case. On September 3, an Algerian court sentenced two men to three years' jail and 42 people to...
Algeria: Alleged daughter of Bouteflika and professional crook gets 12 years jail sentence
A prominent Algerian businesswoman, allegedly an illegitimate child of ousted president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in prison after being convicted of corruption. An Algiers court also fined her six million dinars ($47,000) and ordered...
Migrants in Algeria confronted with mass deportations and abuse
Algerian security forces have arrested thousands of migrants and asylum seekers, cramming them onto trucks and buses before expelling them across the border in Niger, Human Rights Watch said Friday. "Algeria is entitled to protect its borders, but not to arbitrarily...
Podcast: One more election in Algeria and a highly compromised economic outlook
In this episode, Arezki Daoud of MEA Risk LLC and Editor of the North Africa Journal revisits Algeria after the most recent brief review on Egypt. Why Algeria? because the country is bracing for yet another election on 1 November with the government of President...
Algeria: Islamo-conservatives on the attack, unite in their disdain for minority languages and secularism
Algerian extremist court punishes man for his religious views, more human rights abuses by conservative judges An Algerian court on Thursday handed a key member of the Hirak anti-government protest movement a 10-year prison sentence for "inciting atheism", a rights...
Algerians in shock after murder of 19-year old woman
The rape and murder in Algeria of a 19-year-old woman sparked cries for action on gender-based violence in the North African country and calls to bring back capital punishment. The body of the young woman, identified as Chaima, was found in early October at a deserted...
Algerians defy regime repression, return to the street to demand change
Hundreds of Algerians defied a nationwide ban on protests and took to the streets Monday to demand democratic change and mark the anniversary of 1988 demonstrations that ushered in reforms. Around 400 to 500 demonstrators in Algiers tried to march to the city centre...
Algeria: Regime pushes for another unpopular poll: a constitution crafted for army-appointed President Tebboune
Algeria is readying for a constitutional referendum that the establishment says will usher in a "New Republic" and boost freedoms, but the opposition dismisses as window-dressing by a repressive regime. With a month to go before the November 1 vote, many ordinary...
With Russia’s presence in Libya and turmoil in the Sahel, US seeks to reengage with the Maghreb
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper signed a 10-year military cooperation deal with Tunis Wednesday during his first stop on a regional tour, hailing US-Tunisia collaboration over the conflict in neighbouring Libya. The past decade has seen growing cooperation between the...
Algerian lawyers hit back at government abuses, announce strike next week
Algeria's bar association said Monday it would hold a nationwide two-day strike this week to demand "respect for the right to a defence". In a statement, the National Union of Bar Associations urged lawyers to hold a "general strike... to protest against violations of...
Connect
You can find us on a few social media platforms. Feel free to connect with us there.