Algeria Cracks down on Activists in Bid to Break Protest Movement

Demonstrators chant slogans during a protest demanding the removal of the ruling elite in Algiers, Algeria July 19, 2019. (Reuters)
Demonstrators chant slogans during a protest demanding the removal of the ruling elite in Algiers, Algeria July 19, 2019. (Reuters)
TT
20

Algeria Cracks down on Activists in Bid to Break Protest Movement

Demonstrators chant slogans during a protest demanding the removal of the ruling elite in Algiers, Algeria July 19, 2019. (Reuters)
Demonstrators chant slogans during a protest demanding the removal of the ruling elite in Algiers, Algeria July 19, 2019. (Reuters)

Algeria has intensified a crackdown on an anti-government protest movement, targeting social media users in a bid to stop demonstrations resuming once coronavirus restrictions end.

Weekly protests rocked the North African country for more than a year and only stopped in March due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The "Hirak" protest movement caused the downfall of former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April 2019 after 20 years in power. It has continued demanding an overhaul of Algeria's governance system, in place since independence from France in 1962.

Authorities have made about 200 arrests linked to the protests since the country's coronavirus restrictions came into effect three months ago, according to Said Salhi, vice president of the Algerian League for the Defense of Human Rights.

"The authorities have taken advantage of the lull to arrest the maximum number of activists," he said.

Protesters are being pursued for "crimes of opinion and expression connected to posts on social media, particularly Facebook", he said, with some of their homes searched and mobile phones confiscated.

Most of the authorities' actions are based on changes to the penal code that were passed in April amid the health crisis and have been denounced by human rights activists.

'Muzzling the media'

Salhi called the moves "an irresponsible attack, verging on provocation, against fundamental human rights".

On Thursday, more than 20 opposition activists were summoned to appear in seven separate hearings, mostly in trials that had been delayed due to the pandemic.

Those accused include figures in the protest movement, political activists, journalists and people accused of mocking the regime online.

"The government doesn't believe in change, it refuses to listen to the people," lawyer Mustapha Bouchachi was quoted as saying this week in French-language daily Liberte.

"In my opinion, it is making these arrests to break the Hirak," he added.

According to detainees' rights association CNLD, 60 prisoners of conscience are currently jailed.

In a sign the government might be nervous about the public mood, several academics rushed to its defense in official media this week, accusing a "neo-Hirak" of being "in the service of a foreign plan".

But press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called on the Algerian authorities to "stop using the justice system to muzzle the media".

"The increase in legal proceedings against Algerian journalists is extremely worrying and indicates a blatant deterioration of press freedom in Algeria," RSF director for North Africa, Souhaieb Khayati, said in a statement.

Four Algerian journalists were prosecuted or sentenced to prison this week.

Opposite impact?

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists has also urged Algerian authorities to "stop using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to clamp down on press freedom".

Some of Algeria's coronavirus lockdown measures have been gradually lifted since June 7.

But gatherings, including the weekly Hirak marches, are still strictly forbidden.

Algeria has officially reported 11,385 cases and 811 deaths from the COVID-19 illness.

Provincial areas have seen sporadic mobilizations in support of detainees in recent weeks, particularly in the northeastern Kabylie region, while Algiers has remained quiet.

Defying the restrictions, protesters across the country rallied on Friday to call for the government to step down, according to NGOs and videos shared online.

The CNLD reported about a dozen arrests were made in Kabylie's Bejaia and several more in the region's other main cities of Tizi Ouzou and Bouira.

Small numbers of protesters have also been arrested elsewhere across the country, including in the northwestern city of Oran, according to the CNLD.

An anti-government coalition within the Pact for the Democratic Alternative has urged Algerians to "stay mobilized but vigilant in order to engage forcefully in the resumption of peaceful protests" when the health situation allows.

And although there were calls on social media to restart weekly protests on Friday, activists, lawyers, student associations and political parties warned of the health risks.

But instead of crushing the unprecedented, leaderless protest movement, the crackdown could have the opposite effect.

"There is a general feeling of 'hogra'" prevailing among the population, said Salhi, using an Algerian term that refers to injustice and abuse of power.

"Some are already planning to go back to the streets" despite the coronavirus risk, he said.



Tunisia Activists Launch Gaza-bound Convoy in 'Symbolic Act'

 Tunisians gather at a meeting point in Tunis on June 9, 2025, ahead of the departure of a land convoy named “Steadfastness” to break the siege on Gaza. (AFP)
Tunisians gather at a meeting point in Tunis on June 9, 2025, ahead of the departure of a land convoy named “Steadfastness” to break the siege on Gaza. (AFP)
TT
20

Tunisia Activists Launch Gaza-bound Convoy in 'Symbolic Act'

 Tunisians gather at a meeting point in Tunis on June 9, 2025, ahead of the departure of a land convoy named “Steadfastness” to break the siege on Gaza. (AFP)
Tunisians gather at a meeting point in Tunis on June 9, 2025, ahead of the departure of a land convoy named “Steadfastness” to break the siege on Gaza. (AFP)

Hundreds of people, mainly Tunisians, launched on Monday a land convoy bound for Gaza, seeking to "break the siege" on the Palestinian territory, activists said.

Organizers said the nine-bus convoy was not bringing aid into Gaza, but rather aimed at carrying out a "symbolic act" by breaking the blockade on the territory described by the United Nations as "the hungriest place on Earth".

The "Soumoud" convoy, meaning "steadfastness" in Arabic, includes doctors and aims to arrive in Rafah, in southern Gaza, "by the end of the week", activist Jawaher Channa told AFP.

It is set to pass through Libya and Egypt, although Cairo has yet to provide passage permits, she added.

"We are about a thousand people, and we will have more join us along the way," said Channa, spokeswoman of the Tunisian Coordination of Joint Action for Palestine, the group organizing the caravan.

"Egypt has not yet given us permission to cross its borders, but we will see what happens when we get there," she said.

Channa said the convoy was not set to face issues crossing Libya, "whose people have historically supported the Palestinian cause", despite recent deadly clashes in the country that remains divided between two governments.

Algerian, Mauritanian, Moroccan and Libyan activists were also among the group, which is set to travel along the Tunisian and Libyan coasts, before continuing on to Rafah through Egypt.

After 21 months of war, Israel is facing mounting international pressure to allow more aid into Gaza to alleviate widespread shortages of food and basic supplies.

On June 1, the Madleen aid boat, boarded by activists including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and European parliament member Franco-Palestinian Rima Hassan, set sail for Gaza from Italy.

But on Monday morning Israel intercepted it, preventing it from reaching the Palestinian territory.

The UN has warned that the Palestinian territory's entire population is at risk of famine.