United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan says that desertification is exacerbating extreme poverty and sparking conflict over dwindling resources, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and southern Asia. ”Across the planet, poverty, unsustainable land management and climate change are turning dry lands into deserts,” Annan said in a message for World Environment Day.
The head of the Polisario Front on Sunday claimed a report by the United Nations chief Kofi Annan amounted to a ”plot against the Sahrawi cause” and threatened a returned to ”armed struggle” if it is approved by the Security Council. Mohamed Abdelaziz, head of the Algerian-backed Polisario Front, said Annan’s report was a ”plot against the legitimate right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination”.
An earthquake hit the north-east Algerian town of Laalam east of Algiers late on Monday, killing at least four people and injuring 67, local authorities in Bejaia district said, quoted by national radio. About 30 houses collapsed, Algerian news agency APS quoted the authorities as saying.
No image available
/ 25 January 2006
A hospital in the western Algerian city of Oran carried out precautionary tests for bird flu on a family of four, but initial results were negative, the hospital director said on Wednesday. Definitive test results are not expected for a week, Dr Abderrahmane Attar said in a telephone interview.
Coverage of Aids in Africa typically focuses on the dire situation in countries south of the Sahara, which are home to almost two thirds of people infected with HIV globally, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids. But what of the countries that lie further north and along the Mediterranean? In the case of one of these nations, Algeria, concern about the pandemic is mounting.
A banned Algerian Islamic group with ties to the al-Qaeda network has rejected a government amnesty for Islamic militants in a statement on its website. The Salafist Group for Call and Combat issued the statement in an internet posting on Friday, a day after Algerians voted overwhelmingly to approve a government peace plan.
No image available
/ 30 September 2005
After years of bloody civil war, Algerians overwhelmingly voted in favour of a plan of national reconciliation that would give amnesty to thousands of suspected Islamic terrorists, Interior Minister Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni announced on Friday. Nearly 80% of Algeria’s more than 18-million eligible voters went to the polls.
No image available
/ 21 September 2005
Two members of Algeria’s security services were killed and five injured when a mine went off as an army patrol passed by, newspapers said on Wednesday. The incident occurred in the Msila region, 245km south of the capital, Algiers, the report said.
Twelve Algerian troops were killed and a number wounded in a weekend ambush by armed Islamist rebels, Algerian media reported on Monday, indicating that despite official statements the unrest is far from over. A bomb exploded as the troops’ convoy was travelling on Sunday near Khenchela, a city about 540km east of the capital, Algiers.
North African leaders mixed criticism of journalists who allegedly sidestep the law with promises of more press freedom on Tuesday. The presidents of Tunisia and Algeria — countries that have faced criticism from media advocacy groups — made the comments to reporters as part of the worldwide observance of World Press Freedom Day.
Arab leaders steered clear of the region’s most contentious issues as they prepared to wrap up a summit on Wednesday, while their resolution to reactivate a Middle East peace plan was swiftly rejected by Israel. Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi described Israel and the Palestinians as ”idiots”, leaving his audience in fits of laughter.
Two people were killed and nine were reported missing in Algerian floods this week following heavy rain in the Sahara, according to reports on Wednesday. About 70 travellers were trapped when wadis (valleys) suddenly flooded in the downpours on Sunday and Monday and had to be rescued by army helicoters, newspapers reported.
No image available
/ 13 January 2005
Algerian authorities are mopping up the main Islamic extremist group responsible for the deaths of dozens of people, having wiped out another movement, Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni said in an interview published on Thursday. The Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat has become the principal extremist group in Algeria’s Islamist rebellion.
Algeria’s roads are some of the deadliest in the world with 550 people killed in accidents there since the beginning of June. The figures show that every two hours a person is killed in a traffic accident in Algeria, with more that 4 000 killed annually and more than 57 000 injured, among them 500 who are left severely handicapped.
Hours after a powerful blast rocked a power plant near the Algerian capital, newspapers in the north African country speculated that the explosion was caused by an attack by extremists, while officials stuck to their line that it was accidental. The French-language daily Liberte speculated in a front-page headline: ”A car-bomb attack?”
Suspected Islamic terrorists killed 10 people in separate incidents in Algeria, security sources said on Monday. In the capital, Algiers, two policemen were shot dead late on Saturday during celebrations of a Moslem religious holiday. The daily Le Matin said the killers belonged to the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat.
Newly re-elected Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika took the oath of office on Monday, embarking on a second term that he said will be devoted to the quest for ”true national reconciliation” in war-torn Algeria. The president’s landslide re-election is attributed largely to the ”civil reconciliation” plan he unveiled in 1999.
Horns began blaring and firecrackers went off in the streets of Algiers on Thursday as supporters of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika began celebrating his presumed re-election before any official results were announced. Two and a half hours after polls closed at 8pm, long lines of white buses bearing cheering Bouteflika supporters began filling the streets of the city centre.
On the eve of what is shaping up as the most democratic presidential election to date to be held in Algeria, the press and three of the six candidates in the polls on Wednesday accused the incumbent Abdelaziz Bouteflika of plotting to steal the vote. Candidates agree that a first-round victory by Bouteflika would raise suspicions.
For the first time since independence more than four decades ago, many Algerians felt their vote could make a real difference as they mulled Tuesday whether to re-elect President Abdelaziz Bouteflika or throw him out in favour of one of his five challengers.
Outbreaks of violence that the Algerian press describes as ”riots” by disaffected youth have broken out in the past few days in several northern cities and towns, newspapers reported on Tuesday. Youths are protesting against unemployment, water shortages and an alleged lack of promised development programmes.
No image available
/ 23 February 2004
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has been unofficially on the campaign trail for months, announced on Sunday he will stand for a second term in an election to be held in April. Bouteflika said he was seeking five more years in office to continue his programme of ”restoring peace and promoting national reconciliation”.
Algeria on Wednesday announced the formation of a committee to link the government and thousands of families who say their loved ones disappeared at the hands of state security forces during the 1990s.
Germany and France on Thursday sent emergency teams to Algeria after a powerful earthquake killed at least 540 people.
At least 643 people are known to have been killed in the violent earthquake that hit northern Algeria, a report on state-run radio said on Thursday, increasing the previous toll by nearly 100.
Terror in Algiers
Cries of terror and anguish filled the streets of Algiers early Thursday after a powerful earthquake claimed at least 538 lives in northern Algeria.
No image available
/ 28 February 2003
Three employees of the Algerian billionaire Abdelmoumene Khalifa have been arrested in Algiers trying to board a Paris-bound jet with suitcases stuffed with millions of euros, sources said on Thursday.
Rioters set alight government buildings and cars in Algeria in protest against a worsening water shortage.
ARMED extremists killed 31 people, mainly civilians, in two separate massacres overnight in the Tiaret region of western Algeria, officials said on Thursday.
AT least 19 inmates died and six were injured when a blaze started by prisoners who torched their mattresses ripped through the Serkadji prison in the Algerian capital, state television said on Wednesday, quoting Justice Minister Ahmed Ouyahia.
An armed group machine-gunned a bus killing 11 passengers and wounding 10 at Medea, 80km south of Algiers.
A homemade bomb blast killed two police officers at a beach resort in eastern Algeria, one of several violent events in the insurgency-ridden country that left a total of five dead