Algeria

Pre-match Khartoum heating up

Team Observers — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:34:24 +0100

Slogans and partisan chants were ringing out in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, ahead of Wednesday’s much anticipated World Cup qualification play-off between Egypt and Algeria.

Thousands of football fans have flooded into Khartoum, a city little used to hosting events of such international scope. The stadium has a capacity of 41,000 spectators, but authorities have limited ticket sales to 35,000 for security reasons. Egypt and Algeria have each been allocated 9,000 seats for the game.

Irate fans vandalised Egyptian offices while “police stood by and watched”

Team Observers — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:48:28 +0100

After last weekend’s tense World Cup qualification football game pitting Egypt’s Pharaohs against Algeria’s Fennecs (the Pharaohs won 2-0), irate Algerian football fans vandalised several Egyptian businesses in Algiers. On Sunday, Anis (not his real name) found himself near the offices of telephone operator Djezzy, owned by Egyptian company Orascom, when an angry mob stormed the site. According to Anis, police officers stood by and watched as violent youths went on the rampage in the company's offices. However, reports in Algerian daily El Watan claimed "anti-riot forces intervened to stop the vandalism” and made “several arrests". According to Orascom, the angry football fans damaged several million dollars worth of property.

(The most violent images appear at 3 minutes 50 seconds)

I came across a group of about 200 youths headed towards the Djezzy headquarters, in the Algiers neighbourhood of Dar el-Beida. I decided to follow them. They didn’t look like typical vandals, more like neighbourhood kids. There were a dozen anti-riot police vans stationed around the building. Youths began throwing rocks at the windows, but the police did nothing. So the kids began throwing bigger rocks, then breaking down the door, and still the police did nothing. The mob went on the rampage and vandalised every single floor of the building, but the police didn’t intervene until some of them tried to set fire to the place. It almost looked as if the police was stationed there to protect the rioters, not the building! The incidents began at 7.30pm and lasted until the following morning. Many shops were attacked in the city centre, but the company headquarters suffered the worst damage. If Algeria looses Wednesday’s run-off game and does not qualify for the World Cup, I can guarantee that there will be even more damage.

Algeria-Egypt turns violent

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 13:17:39 +0100

Defender Rafik Halliche sustained a head injury in the attack. Posted on YouTube here.

The Algerian team bus was attacked by stone-throwers last night as it made its way from Cairo airport to the hotel where the players are staying for Saturday's World Cup qualifier with the Egyptian Pharaohs. Five players were injured in the attack.

Despite a heavy police presence, around 200 home fans emerged from the bushes by the motorway and hurled stones towards the bus, shattering the windscreen and several windows. The Algerian Minister for Foreign Affairs expressed dismay over the attack in a press release.

For some weeks now hostility between fans from the two countries has been worsening both online and in the media.

Tensions are running very high for the Egyptians, winners of the 2008 African Cup of Nations (CAN). To qualify on Saturday, the team needs to win by a margin of at least three goals, while Algeria, top of group C, can still be on their way to the World Cup even if they give away one goal.

Algeria vs Egypt – a bitter battle before it’s begun

Team Observers — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:18:48 +0100

Image by Nadjib Bouzera.

UPDATE (13/11/09 - 10.30pm): shortly after the Algerian team bus arrived in Cairo on Thursday, it was attacked by stone throwing home fans. The Algerian authorities say five players were injured, including defender Rafik Halliche and midfielder Khaled Lemmouchia.

Talk over Saturday's qualifier between Egypt and Algeria has long gone off topic. Football itself forgotten, web users have jumped at the chance to use the match as an excuse for a bitter quarrel, where no subject is off-limits.

Images of burning flags, nasty comments and jeers - the insults are flying, and have been for some weeks now. Algerian web users have even managed to involve the 1967 Six-Day War, gleefully asserting that Egypt took a battering. Egypt's response - at least they know how to speak Arabic...

Last week, the ministers for Foreign Affairs from both countries called on their respective media to "calm down".

Egypt vs. Algeria – the “hate match” has already kicked off online

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:29:18 +0100

Illustration from the Lounis blog

The Algerian Fennecs take on the Egyptian Pharaohs for a place in the 2010 World Cup on November 14. With a week still to go before the game, things have already turned nasty, both countries accusing the other of corruption.

The qualifier is crucial. For the moment, Algeria have the higher ground - a draw or even a 1-0 defeat would still leave them on their way to South Africa. Egypt, who need to win by a margin of at least three goals to qualify, are hoping the home advantage will give them a helping hand.

For the fans, the battle has already begun. Insults, aggro and accusations of corruption abound on the Net. Several Facebook groups have urged FIFA, the football governing body, to choose an impartial, European, referee for the match, after the Egyptians were accused of wanting to buy their choice of a suitable candidate.

Chinese migrants in Algeria – cohabitation "impossible"?

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:09:28 +0200

On August 3 violent clashes broke out between local residents and Chinese immigrants in a suburb of Alger. Our Observer in Blida, 50km from the capital, explains that reasons behind the conflict are economic as well as cultural.

Algeria: “A real risk of a mass uprising”

Sophie Team Observers — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:24:51 +0200

So infuriated by "administrative burdens", protestors piled burning tyres onto a major motorway leading to the Algerian capital on Saturday.

Residents from Sikh Ounteddour, a village in the northern coastal Kabylie province, began filling the motorway with debris as a way to protest against a disorganised social services system which they say is slowing down and complicating their lives. Blocking major routes as a method of protest has become something of a normality in Algeria, raising concerns that a general uprising is imminent.

Video posted on YouTube 26 July 2009 by "algeriachannel".

The Algiers metro – 26 years on and it’s almost ready

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:53:45 +0200

This time, it's not a joke. Twenty-six years after the idea was drafted, the Algerian capital could, perhaps, have its very own metro by 2010. Our Observer tells us that it's almost ready - he's even got the photos to prove it.

Earlier this month, Transport Minister Amar Tou made the exciting announcement that the public opening of the Algiers metro should take place early 2010. About time - the project was officially launched in... 1983. Since then, between economic crisis, political instability and public insecurity, the project has been repeatedly pushed to the bottom of the pile. It's out-run five presidents and squandered 140 billion dinars (around 200 million euros). The subject has become something of a joke for Algiers' residents.

Stretching over nine kilometres, the metro's first line will connect ten locations from the centre to the east of the city. The first train will run at 5am, and the last at 11pm. A special police force has been set up to take charge of the stations and their surrounding areas. The Parisian metro security, RATP, has been called upon to supervise arrangements for the first five years.

Bouteflika's Kabyle charm offensive

Team Observers — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:50:16 +0200

With President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s re-election a done deal, Algerians are expected to shun the country’s electoral proceedings on April 9. The incumbent has launched a major charm offensive in the Kabylia region, where scepticism of the central power has long kept people away from polling stations.

And what about you, planning to vote?

“After this warm welcome, I can finally rest in peace,” joked the Algerian president during a rally in Tizi Ouzon, in the country’s north-eastern Kabylia region, on March 27. As he embarked on a passionate plea for “national unity”, Bouteflika said he could not imagine Algeria being deprived of Kabylia. He also outlined a plan to boost the region’s economy. According to Said Sadi, leader of the opposition RCD party, the president’s camaign has spent 3.8 million euros in Kabylia alone. Yet, despite these efforts, calls for a boycott of the vote have thrived in a region still haunted by memories of the bloody crushing of riots in 2001. In the last presidential election in 2004, turnout in Kabylia was particularly low, even by Algerian standards: a mere 17.80% of voters bothered to cast a ballot.

Ghardaia, a city under mud

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:07:06 +0200

A cluster of towns in Algeria endured over a week of catastrophic and fatal flash floods after the banks of the Oued M'Zab burst, leaving nearby buildings buried under thick sludge. Our Observer in the area filmed the extent of the damage on his mobile phone.

Torrential rains started to fall in the region on the morning of 1 October, also the last day of Ramadan, when Muslims break their fast and celebrate Eid. In just a few days, the Ghardaia palm grove and the rest of the valley were covered in a layer of mud.

Although barely reported in the press, the catastrophe killed 34 people and injured 89. From the nine towns labelled disaster areas by the authorities, ten thousand buildings were washed away in the floods. Although the main roads into the towns have been reopened, people are denouncing the government for a delayed rescue reaction. The authorities say that it was because of the force of the water, and blamed the extent of the damage on the city's haphazard construction.

Posted on 2 October by "adeloul18".