Algeria: “A real risk of a mass uprising”

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".

“If the authorities don’t make any changes, I can guarantee that we’ll go further next time”

Mohamed was one of the protestors who blocked the RN12 motorway. He's a member of the Kabyle tribe-affiliated public movement Aarachs. 

The governmental systems in place do not help people to get out of poverty and unemployment. Our young people are left with nothing to do. Instead of encouraging them to become real men, the authorities push them towards leaving the country, or in worse cases suicide, drugs, or organised crime. Some of them get to the age of forty without ever having found work. Consequently, they only have riots to make themselves heard.

As our demands for socio-political action to be taken in the Kabylie region are not listened to, we have to block the roads. I was one of the first to contribute to the barrage on Saturday. We had the support of the people. The police threw tear gas into people's homes, but we didn't give in. The road was reopened today (Monday July 27). But if the authorities don't make any changes, I can guarantee that we'll go further next time. There's a real risk of a mass uprising, like in 2001."