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US Condemns Continued Houthi Detention of International Staff

A number of European Union ambassadors during their meeting with the Chairman of the Yemeni Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, on a previous visit to Aden (Saba)
A number of European Union ambassadors during their meeting with the Chairman of the Yemeni Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, on a previous visit to Aden (Saba)
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US Condemns Continued Houthi Detention of International Staff

A number of European Union ambassadors during their meeting with the Chairman of the Yemeni Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, on a previous visit to Aden (Saba)
A number of European Union ambassadors during their meeting with the Chairman of the Yemeni Leadership Council, Rashad Al-Alimi, on a previous visit to Aden (Saba)

US Ambassador to Yemen Steven Fagin has condemned the continued detention by the Houthis of employees from the UN, non-governmental organizations and diplomatic missions.

Fagin issued a statement Friday on the 90th day in Houthi detention for the innocent employees.

“Today marks the 90th day in Houthi detention for innocent employees of the United Nations, non-governmental organizations, and diplomatic missions; and more than 1,000 days of unlawful detention at the hands of this same terrorist group for twelve current and former employees of the US Mission to Yemen,” he said.

“That the Houthis have committed these extreme actions against fellow Yemenis is profoundly shortsighted, callous, and inhumane,” the statement added.

The Ambassador said that “Houthis have ripped people from their families and their homes based on fanciful and absurd accusations that are not in line with the real lives these people were living – that of commitment to family, to Yemen, and its future.”

He added that Houthi “actions also may exacerbate the suffering of Yemenis living under Houthi control, by jeopardizing critical humanitarian assistance.”

“We will not rest until our Yemeni colleagues are safely returned to their families, and we call on the Houthis to release all detainees immediately.”

The Houthi militias have, since early June, arrested and forcibly disappeared dozens of people, including at least 13 UN staff and many employees of nongovernmental organizations operating in their controlled territories.

The militia has expanded its campaign to include more than 70 employees of international and local organizations in areas under its control in northern and western Yemen, and has accused them of spying for foreign parties.

Yemeni Information Minister Moammar Al-Eryani has condemned the Houthis’ use of torture to extract confessions from staff working for the UN and international organizations.

He said such practices are due to the international community's leniency towards the violations committed by the Iranian-backed group.

The European Union Heads of Mission to Yemen have also expressed deep concern over the Houthis’ detention and disappearance for over three months of dozens of staff working for the UN, international and local organizations, calling for their unconditional release.

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Arab World

Algeria's President is Expected to Win a Second Term in Saturday's Election

A man walks past an electoral banner of Algeria's incumbent president and independent presidential candidate Abdelmajid Tebboune in Oran on September 5, 2024, ahead of the upcoming presidential elections. (Photo by AFP)
A man walks past an electoral banner of Algeria's incumbent president and independent presidential candidate Abdelmajid Tebboune in Oran on September 5, 2024, ahead of the upcoming presidential elections. (Photo by AFP)
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Algeria's President is Expected to Win a Second Term in Saturday's Election

A man walks past an electoral banner of Algeria's incumbent president and independent presidential candidate Abdelmajid Tebboune in Oran on September 5, 2024, ahead of the upcoming presidential elections. (Photo by AFP)
A man walks past an electoral banner of Algeria's incumbent president and independent presidential candidate Abdelmajid Tebboune in Oran on September 5, 2024, ahead of the upcoming presidential elections. (Photo by AFP)

Algerians head to the polls Saturday to cast votes for president and determine who will govern their gas-rich North African nation — five years after pro-democracy protests prompted the military to oust the previous president after two decades in power.
Algeria is Africa's largest country by area and, with almost 45 million people, it's the continent's second most populous after South Africa to hold presidential elections in 2024 — a year in which more than 50 elections are being held worldwide, encompassing more than half the world's population.
Since elections were scheduled in March — ahead of the predicted schedule — there has been little suspense as President Abdelmadjid Tebboune appears poised to breeze to victory against the two challengers running against him.
The hot summer campaign has sparked little enthusiasm, apart from on public television, where it's required that candidate and surrogate appearances be covered. On TV, election season has been presented as a vibrant affair.
“Voting has no meaning in Algeria like in the big democracies,” 28-year-old Kaci Taher told The Associated Press a month before the election. “Where I come from, the results and quotas are fixed in advance in the back room of the government, so what’s the point of taking part in the electoral farce?”
Tebboune was elected in December 2019 after nearly a year of weekly demonstrations demanding the resignation of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Their demands were met when Bouteflika resigned that April and was replaced by an interim government of his former allies, which called for elections later in the year.
Protestors opposed holding elections too soon, fearing the candidates running that year each were close to the old regime and would perpetuate the corruption-ridden system they wanted to end. Tebboune, a former prime minister seen as close to Algeria's politically powerful military, emerged the winner. But his victory was marred by low voter turnout, widespread boycotts from protestors and Election Day tumult, during which crowds sacked voting stations and police broke up demonstrations.
This year, Tebboune ran as an independent candidate with the support of several political parties including the National Liberation Front, which has dominated Algerian politics since the country wrested independence from France after more than a decade of war in 1962.
The southwestern Algeria native and political veteran has framed his first term in office as a turning point, telling voters in a campaign rally the week before polls that he “put Algeria back on track." To cement his legitimacy both domestically and to Algeria's allies, he hopes more of the country's 24 million eligible voters will participate in Saturday's election than in his first, when 39.9% turned out to vote.
“It seems that what matters most to ‘le pouvoir’ in this election is voter turnout to lend legitimacy to their candidate, whose victory is a foregone conclusion,” said Algerian sociologist Mohamed Hennad, employing a term frequently used to describe the military-backed political establishment.
Twenty-six candidates submitted preliminary paperwork to run in the election, although only two were ultimately approved to challenge Tebboune. Like the president, both have also emphasized turnout. Neither political novices, they have avoided directly criticizing Tebboune on the campaign trail.
Abdelali Hassani Cherif, a 57-year-old engineer from the Movement of Society for Peace party has made populist appeals to Algerian youth, running on the slogan “Opportunity!” and calling for efforts to boost employment and reform education, where French language has long played a major role in addition to Arabic.
Youcef Aouchiche, a 41-year-old former journalist running with the Socialist Forces Front, campaigned on a “vision for tomorrow,” and referenced human rights issues plaguing journalists, activists and critics of the government in Tebboune's Algeria. It's the first time since 1999 that his party, which enjoys strong support among ethnic minorities in central Algeria, has put forth a candidate.
Andrew Farrand, the Middle East and North Africa director at the geopolitical risk consultancy Horizon Engage, said both opposition candidates were more aimed at the 2025 legislative elections than the 2024 presidential contest. Because Algerian law funds political parties based on the number of seats they win in legislative elections, they hope campaigning will position them for a strong performance in 2025.