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Algeria’s president Tebboune still missing in action: power vacuum in the making
A month after Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune was hospitalised in Germany and tested positive for coronavirus, uncertainty about his health is fuelling questions about the country's leadership. Tebboune, who is 75 and a heavy smoker, was admitted to hospital...
Algeria: Appeals court ridicules lower court for issuing 10 year jail sentence over opinion on religion
An Algerian appeals court Wednesday slashed to one year a 10-year jail term handed to opposition activist Yacine Mebarki, convicted of "offending Islam", his lawyer said. The court upheld rulings against Mebarki on charges including "offending the precepts of...
In North Africa, hospitals are in a state of war
Covid assaults the MENA region Iran, Jordan and Morocco have recorded thousands of new Covid-19 infections in recent days, the World Health Organization said Thursday, warning that lockdowns could not stamp out the pandemic. "More than 60 percent of all cases in the...
Algerian court orders retrial of former regime leaders, paves way for their release
Algeria's supreme court on Wednesday said the brother of former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika and two ex-intelligence chiefs convicted of conspiracy against the state would be retried after appeals. The once mighty Said Bouteflika was long seen as the real power...
Algeria: Media provocateur, Anis Rahmani, gets five years in prison
The head of Algeria's top private media group was jailed for five years on Sunday, the company said, the toughest sentence handed to a press mogul in the North African country. Anis Rahmani, chief of the Ennahar group, is the latest figure close to the clan of former...
Algeria: Covid upsurge prompts Algeria to impose new restrictions
Algeria imposed new coronavirus restrictions Sunday, closing sport and cultural centres as well as beaches after a spike in infections. The government called on Algerians to fight what it called a "concerning phase" of the pandemic. Algeria has registered more than...
Algeria confirms record low turnout for referendum on a new constitution, approves it anyway
The 23.8-percent turnout was a record low for a major vote in Algeria, with fewer than 15 percent of eligible voters endorsing the constitutional document Algerians approved constitutional reforms in a referendum, though with a record low turnout, the country's...
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...
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