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Algeria: Currency depreciation, inflation, recession, and the pandemic: an economy in turmoil
Algiers, Aug 9, 2020 - [Photo: Algerian retirees queuing to withdraw their pensions during a cash crunch in July 2020] Currency depreciation, inflation, negative growth, businesses closed: Algeria's economy has been battered by the one-two punch of the coronavirus...
Algeria military establishment continues to undergo leadership purge
On Tuesday, 4 August, Algerian President Tebboune officially dismissed General Abderrahmane Arrar, the head of the National Gendarmerie paramilitary unit, in a long-awaited move that saw the appointment of General Nouredine Gouasmia as his replacement. As former...
Algeria: Thousands of hectares of forests in Algeria ravaged by fire
Algeria's president on Sunday ordered an "immediate" investigation into forest fires that have ravaged thousands of hectares across the country in recent days, his office said. The enquiry aims to "determine the causes of fires that have ravaged vast stretches of...
Algeria: Reporters Without Borders calls for Algeria to release journalist Khaled Drareni
Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), fellow journalists and rights groups called Thursday for Algerian authorities to release detained journalist Khaled Drareni. The head of the Casbah Tribune website and correspondent for RSF and French-language television...
Generalized repression in the Arab world
Repressive Arab regimes are taking advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to crack down on the opposition, freedom of speech, independent media, and anything they consider a threat to their control of power. Almost no country in the region is spared by the other virus,...
Algeria: President Tebboune fires minister over unreported real estate purchases
North Africa Journal: On 29 July 2020, President Tebboune dismissed the Minister of Labor, Employment and Social Security, Ahmed Chawki Fouad Acheuk Youcef. The presidency did not provide the reasons for the decision in its communique. However, sources said...
Europe reinstates restrictions on entry of Algerian travelers over spreading virus
Brussels, July 29, 2020 - The EU is to reimpose travel restrictions on Algeria, diplomats said Wednesday, after a resurgence of coronavirus in the north African state. Governments have restricted inbound travel from outside the EU in order to slow the spread of the...
More than 143,000 cumulative Covid-19 infections in North Africa, at least 6,000 deaths so far, Egypt worst hit
The cumulative confirmed infections of Covid-19 in the North African countries of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt reached 143,258 over the weekend ending 26 July 2020. The combined death toll since the outbreak of the pandemic reached 6,144. Egypt, which...
Algeria: Former minister Moussa Benhamadi dies of Covid-19 while in prison
Algiers, July 18, 2020 - A former Algerian cabinet minister detained in a corruption case has died from the COVID-19 illness, his brother said Saturday. Ex-telecom minister Moussa Benhamadi, 67, who was close to ousted president Abdelaziz Bouteflika, contracted the...
Algeria: The economic cost of the Covid-19 epidemic in Algeria
Algiers, July 18, 2020- Algeria said Saturday that the coronavirus crisis on top of falling oil prices have caused unprecedented damage to its economy, including over $1 billion in losses in the public sector alone. "Algeria is facing an unprecedented difficult...
Algeria: Auto industry magnate Mahieddine Tahkout sentenced for corruption
Algiers, July 15, 2020 - A former car industry boss who swiftly amassed riches under Algeria's ousted president Abdelaziz Bouteflika was sentenced Wednesday to 16 years in prison on corruption charges. In the country's fourth major post-Bouteflika era corruption...
Algerian police arrest singer for criticizing dilapidated hospital
The Algerian authorities arrested singer Siham Japonia after she was accused of "attacking the symbols of the Revolution." The arrest came after a court issued a warrant early Tuesday following her release of a video of a hospital in Oran that had no staff. The singer...
Algeria: Corruption trial ends with more prison years for two former Prime Ministers and several members of Tahkout family
Algiers- The North Africa Journal - 15 July 2020: [Photo: Fall from grace. The photo shows former Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia attending the recent burial of his brother. He was in prison and granted the right to attent the funeral with heavy security detail] The...
Algeria: While cutting his prison sentence by three months, court keeps journalist Djamel Toubal behind bars
Algiers, July 14, 2020 - An Algerian appeals court Tuesday reduced a journalist's jail term to 15 months over Facebook posts deemed to support anti-government protests, his lawyer said. Djamel Toubal, 47, had been sentenced on June 18 to a two-year prison term. "The...
New influx of migrants raises concern in Italy
The recent arrivals have sparked protests by locals in some areas, after a few dozen migrants tested positive for the coronavirus after disembarking. Italy is facing a surge in migrants, with arrivals almost one-third higher so far this year than last, interior...
Algeria: Sonatrach rep in Lebanon among those charged by judge in tainted fuel scandal
Beirut, July 10, 2020 - A Lebanese investigative judge charged dozens of people including top officials Friday over a delivery of suspect fuel intended for the electricity sector, a judicial source and state media said. The "tainted fuel" case made headlines in March...
Algeria: As virus infections intensify, health sector faces disastrous outcome
Algiers, July 9, 2020 - Algerian doctors and nurses say they have paid a heavy price in the country's coronavirus response and have warned of worse to come, urging respect and enforcement of hygiene rules. "We're working non-stop. We're totally exhausted. Some...
Morocco and Algeria report record numbers of Covid-19 cases
Rabat (AFP) - Morocco reported Sunday 698 additional novel coronavirus infections, the highest one-day increase since the outbreak began in early March, with numerous cases discovered in a port city factory. The new figures bring the official total in the North...
Algeria: Several opposition figures and rights activists released from prison
Editor's note: Also to be released are Samir Benlarbi et Slimane Hamitouche Algiers, July 2, 2020 - Two key figures in Algeria's protest movement, Karim Tabbou and Amira Bouraoui, are to be freed provisionally from prison Thursday, a lawyer and rights groups said....
Algeria: Oligarch Ali Haddad gets 18 years in prison
An Algerian court on Wednesday handed heavy prison sentences to several former allies of ousted president Abdelaziz Bouteflika for corruption, a defence lawyer said. Prominent tycoon Ali Haddad was handed an 18-year jail term while former prime ministers Ahmed Ouyahia...
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