Algeria: Quiet has been restored in two Algerian cities

After protests on Saturday night against poor living conditions and the lockdown imposed about the coronavirus, calm has been reestablished in two Algerian areas.

In fact, authorities are fright that the protests would revive the popular manifestations that stopped after the virus outbreak. Protests were organized in the natural gas-rich Laghouat (500 km southern Algiers) city center, while hundreds of jobless people entered to the public places to demand job opportunities, and also dozens of Algerians, who demanded improved housing and health services and carrying out of infrastructure projects, joined the other protesters.

It should indicate that Laghouat is the gateway to the desert that covers two-thirds of the country’s area. Its citizens continuously protest about being marginalized and excluded from government positions. They also consider that they are being deprived from the desert’s resources, particularly oil and gas.

Thus, demonstrators protested around the city’s streets quietly, emphasizing their peaceful movement. Moreover, security forces were caught off-guard by the protest even though the area has been under the tense for years because to complaints by locals about shale gas drilling that they consider it’s unsafe to ground water and consequently their crops, which are a source of revenue to thousands.

Also, dozens of youths marched on the streets, on the same night, of the coastal state of Jijel (400 km east of the capital) to protest against the lockdown extension in their city and many other states for two weeks. They said slogans to express their refusal to live in jail cells.

Otherwise, this city is poor from the recreational means and suffers from a high joblessness rate although its massive tourism and services potential. Whereas, local observers consider that Algeria is on the verge of a popular explosion because of declining of currency resources after the decrease in oil prices since 2014.