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Algerians maintain their anti-regime protests despite COVID-19
ME Risk Brief: Large crowds surged this Friday, 13 March in Algiers and in many Algerian cities for the 56th week of the anti-government protest known as the Hirak movement. The public mobilization has taken place despite the risk of COVID-19 spreading among the...
Algeria reports second COVID-19 death
Algiers, March 12, 2020 - Algeria has registered two deaths from the novel coronavirus, the health ministry announced Thursday, as schools were closed for three weeks. The first case was a man, aged 67, who had heart disease, the ministry's director general, Djamel...
North Africa coronavirus: 12 March 2020 update
Listen to the audio podcast above By Arezki Daoud: It is not total panic mode yet, but there is a feeling that the situation is bubbling up a bit more every day and could get out of control. Most of the pressure that has been building can be attributed to the hype...
Algeria registers first coronavirus death
Algiers, March 12, 2020 (AFP) - Algeria has registered its first death from the novel coronavirus, the health ministry announced on Thursday. No further details on the death were provided in the ministry statement, cited by the official APS press agency. Another five...
Algeria: Court sentences opposition activist Karim Tabbou to one year in prison, set to be released next week
Algiers, March 11, 2020 - A court Wednesday sentenced Karim Tabbou, a key figure in Algeria's anti-government protest movement, to six months in prison for "undermining national unity", a lawyer said. Tabbou, who heads the small, unregistered opposition party UDS, has...
Algeria: Police prevent Saturday protest rally in Algiers
Algiers, March 7, 2020 - Algerian police arrested around ten demonstrators at an anti-government protest in Algiers on Saturday, an AFP journalist said. Nearly 300 protesters tried to march in the capital, prompted by calls online by the "Hirak" protest movement that...
Algeria: Soldier and insurgent killed in clash in Tafassour
Critical incident tracking firm MEA Risk LLC said on 2 March, a military sweeping operation in Tafassour, province of Sidi Belabbes, in northwest Algeria, south of the city of Oran, resulted in a clash between an army patrol and insurgents. One soldier and an...
Algeria: Anti-regime Hirak figure Fodil Boumala acquitted by court
Algiers, March 1, 2020 - An Algerian court on Sunday acquitted Fodil Boumala, a key figure in a protest movement that has rocked the country for over a year, his lawyer told AFP. "He has been acquitted. He will go home today," said Zoubida Assoul, a lawyer for the...
Algeria: Court sentences drug baron to prison, acquits president’s son in real estate corruption case
Algiers, Feb 27, 2020 - The son of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has been acquitted in a high-profile corruption case in which a prominent businessman was sentenced to prison, the national radio reported Thursday. Khaled Tebboune had been in pre-trial...
Global markets rattled by coronavirus
Lagos, Feb 28, 2020 - Nigeria reported the first new coronavirus case in sub-Saharan Africa on Friday, as global stock markets tanked on deepening fears of a pandemic and the World Health Organization warned against the "fatal mistake" of complacency. The virus has...
Corruption in Algeria: Prosecutor calls for two-year jail term for President’s son
The public prosecutor asked a judge in Algiers to sentence Kamel Chikhi, known as "El Bouchi" (the Butcher), to 10 years in prison and a fine of one million dinars, in an illegal real estate development case. El Bouchi became known after the authorities seized...
Algeria: The dizzying pace of the anti-corruption campaign and the clan warfare
The Algerian legal system has resumed its anti-corruption campaign with the arrest this week of several business tycoons and the launch of new investigations on former officials. The dizzying pace of the on going anti-corruption campaign is likely part of a clan...
Algerian health authorities announce first case of coronavirus
The Algerian ministry of health said the country has recorded its first case of coronavirus. The announcement was made on public television on Tuesday, 25 February. Minister of Health Abderrahmane Benbouzid said the infected person is an Italian national who arrived...
Algeria: Pro-democracy activist Fodil Boumala on trial, prosecutor wants one year’s prison term
Algiers, Feb 24, 2020 - An Algerian prosecutor is seeking a year's prison sentence for Fodil Boumala, a leading figure in the country's protest movement, an advocacy group said Monday. Boumala, a former state TV journalist who in 2011 co-founded an opposition group,...
Algerians maintain their revolt against unpopular regime
Algiers, Feb 22, 2020 - Several thousand people gathered in the Algerian capital Saturday on the first anniversary of a protest movement that seeks an overhaul of the political system and forced the former president to resign. Protesters shouted "the people want the...
Algerians wrap up full-year of rallies with pledge to continue until old regime falls
Algiers, Feb 21, 2020 - (photo: Twitter: @khaleddrareni) Algeria this weekend marks a year since the birth of an unprecedented protest movement known as "Hirak" -- one that quickly forced an ailing president from power and is now looking to maintain momentum....
Algeria: City of Bordj Bou Arreridj in the spotlight of the Hirak revolution
Bordj Bou Arreridj, Algeria, Feb 20, 2020 (By Amal Belalloufi): When a group of young people took to the streets of an Algerian industrial city a year ago, they had no idea their protest would be part of a thousands-strong movement that would topple their veteran...
Algerians brace for major anti-government rallies this weekend, police continue to repress
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of the capital Algiers, on Tuesday, 18 February, during the 52nd weekly student mobilization against the regime. Thousands more of non-student protesters also joined the rallies, where they chanted slogans demanding a...
Algeria: The fall of a media provocateur and owner of a propaganda machine
Media provocateur Anis Rahmani, owner of Algeria’s Ennahar TV, was put on detention warrant by a court in Algiers as his case is being investigated. His incarceration indicates the continued clan warfare that has been pitting various regime groups against one another....
North Africa confronting tough climate change
Skoura, Morocco, Feb 14, 2020 (By Ismail Bellaouali) - Dead palm trees lie on dry, yellowish earth near an abandoned adobe house in Morocco's arid southeast, as drought threatens ancient oases. "I grew up in this oasis and I have seen it shrink," says 53-year-old...
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