The 2010–2012 Algerian protests were a series of protests taking place throughout Algeria, lasting from 28 December 2010 to 10 January 2012. The protests were inspired by similar protests across the Middle East and North Africa. Causes cited by the protesters included unemployment, the lack of housing, food-price inflation, corruption, restrictions on freedom of speech and poor living conditions. While localized protests were already commonplace over previous years, extending into December 2010, an unprecedented wave of simultaneous protests and riots, sparked by sudden rises in staple food prices, erupted all over the country starting in January 2011. These were quelled by government measures to lower food prices, but were followed by a wave of self-immolations, most of them in front of government buildings. Opposition parties, unions, and human rights organisations then began to hold weekly demonstrations, despite these being illegal without government permission under the ongoing state of emergency; the government suppressed these demonstrations as far as possible, but in late February yielded to pressure and lifted the state of emergency. Meanwhile, protests by unemployed youth, typically citing unemployment, hogra (oppression), and infrastructure problems, resumed, occurring almost daily in towns scattered all over the country.
Background
After the riots of 1988, the Algerian government had moved towards democracy, holding free elections. However, when the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) won the
first free parliamentary election in 1991, the military staged a coup d'état, voided the election results, declared a state of emergency which remained in force until 2011, and arrested the FIS leadership. This led to the founding of the Armed Islamic Groups (GIA) and the ten-year Algerian Civil War, in which an estimated 250,000 people were killed.
With the unchallenged election of Abdelaziz Bouteflika as president in 1999, civilian government was nominally restored. Violence died down as both guerrillas and soldiers were given immunity for their previous acts under the controversial Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation. Towards the end of his second term, Bouteflika amended the constitution to allow himself to run for a third term in 2009; to no one's surprise, he won the ensuing election, with a very low turnout, according to the opposition and the US Embassy.
Seventy percent of Algeria's population is less than 30 years old. Consequent high levels of youth unemployment, coupled with corruption and widespread poverty, are seen as reasons for dissatisfaction.
The leader of the Rally for Culture and Democracy, Saïd Sadi, claimed that during 2010, there were "9,700 riots and [instances of] unrests" in Algeria. Some protests were about issues such as education and health care, as well as rampant corruption.
29 December 2010
On 29 December 2010, clashes with police were reported in Algiers during protests about the lack of housing. At least 53 people were reported to have been injured and another 29 were arrested.
National, 3–10 January 2011
In 2011, prices of basic foodstuffs rose significantly in Algeria, in line with global trends but also reflecting newly imposed regulations. Unprecedented protests in neighbouring Tunisia over unemployment were already being reported, contributing to the mood.
Between 3 and 10 January, riots and protests broke out across most Algerian towns, triggered by large increases in the prices of basic foods including oil, sugar, and flour. While localised riots have been a frequent occurrence in Algeria since 2005, this set of riots was the first to spread across most regions of the country simultaneously rather than being confined to a particular area. By 10 January they were limited to a few towns, but continued in those towns. More organised efforts to demonstrate on 11 January in Algiers were suppressed vigorously by the police.
Protests against the price increases started on 3 January, with protest in the Ras El Ain quarter of Oran, and in Fouka and Staoueli near Algiers. On 4 January they were repeated in Staoueli and spread to other areas near the capital, with impromptu roadblocks at Douaouda in Tipasa. and Kolea
On 5 January, major riots broke out in several areas at once: in the Bab El Oued neighbourhood of the capital, Algiers, and nearby suburbs, as well as Algeria's second city, Oran, and other towns including Djelfa, Boumerdes, Annaba, and Tipaza. The young men rioting blocked roads, burned tires, and sacked government buildings, protesting the sudden increase in the cost of living, the demolition of shantytowns, and broader issues such as unemployment. They were met by anti-riot forces, who attempted to disperse the crowds. In Bab El Oued, shops and car showrooms were also targeted.
Former Islamic Salvation Front number two Ali Belhadj went to Bab El Oued to see the events and encourage the youths; he was arrested later that day, as were many other protesters and rioters.
Within days the riots spread to twenty-odd wilayahs, covering almost the whole of the north including the Kabylie region, as well as some towns in the Sahara, such as Ouargla and Bechar. Government buildings, particularly town halls, were widely targeted, and shops in some areas were looted or burned; some of the looters carried swords. Football matches scheduled for 7 and 8 January were cancelled.
On 8 January, the government agreed to a temporary cut in taxes and duties on sugar and cooking oil. Facebook and Twitter access were also restricted in some areas. The rioting continued, at least up to 10 January in some places, such as the Bachdjarrah neighbourood in Algiers. By 11 January, the situation had calmed. An attempt to demonstrate on 11 January in Algiers, organised by the intercommunal committee of Ain Benian and Staoueli, was repressed vigorously by the police. In total, three demonstrators died, more than 800 people had been wounded, and at least 1,100 were arrested, many of them minors.
Political implications
While riots on this scale are unprecedented since the 1991 election, their wider political implications are not yet clear. The rioters had no collective ties to any Algerian political party, organisation, or trade union, and some sources commented that they seemed to have no political slogans. Some opposition groups emphasised the riots' political dimension; ex-diplomat and opposition spokesperson Mohamed Larbi Zitout described them as "a revolt, and probably a revolution, of an oppressed people", while the Socialist Forces Front responded to the government's lowering of food prices on 8 January with the slogan "The government cannot buy Algerians' silence". Agence France-Presse (AFP) has linked the January protests with events in Tunisia, stating, "In Tunisia, similar unrest sparked the overthrow of the government of Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali, whose 23 years in power ended with his flight to Saudi Arabia last Friday. Algerian commentators have said that more Tunisia-style protests could break out in Algeria." Despite their scale, the riots were dealt with by the government in much the same way as the localised riots that had already become a routine way of communicating grievances: it sought to avoid creating martyrs and made a specific concession (in this case, a return to the status quo ante of allowing un-declared food sales by Cevital) not seen as threatening the overall system.
Self-immolations (starting 12 January)
As the widely reported protests sparked off by Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation in Tunisia began to have a clear impact on the Tunisian government, a wave of self-immolations swept Algeria. These individual acts of protest mostly took place in front of a government building following an unsuccessful approach to the authorities. Four self-immolators have died of their burns so far.
It began on 12 January, when 26-year-old Mohamed Aouichia set himself on fire in Bordj Menaiel in the compound of the daira building. He had been sharing a room of 30 square metres with seven other people, including his sister, since 2003; he had repeatedly approached local authorities to get on the social housing list and been rebuffed. He has so far survived.
On 13 January, Mohsen Bouterfif, a 37-year-old father of two, set himself on fire. He had gone with about twenty other youths to protest in front of the town hall of Boukhadra in Tebessa demanding jobs and houses, after the mayor refused to receive them. According to one testimony, the mayor shouted to them: "If you have courage, do like Bouazizi did, set yourself on fire!" His death was reported on 16 January, and about 100 youths protested his death causing the provincial governor to sack the mayor. However, hospital staff the following day claimed he was still alive, though in critical condition. Al Jazeera described the suicide as "echoing the self-immolation that triggered the protests that toppled the leader of neighbouring Tunisia." He finally died on 24 January at a hospital in Annaba.
These suicides were followed by dozens more attempted or successful self-immolations across the country, so far without triggering nationwide demonstrations, most of them after the Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled his country on 14 January.
Response of the parties and unions
Late January 2011
A number of left-wing opposition parties, including the FFS, RCD, PLJ, and the Communist MDS, as well as the Algerian League for Human Rights (LADDH) and officially unrecognised unions, such as SATEF and SNAPAP, met on 20 January to discuss responses to the situation. On 21 January, several of them (excluding the FFS) formed the Coordination Nationale pour le Changement et la Démocratie (National Coordination for Change and Democracy), seeking systemic change within the country and calling (along with Rachad) for nationwide marches, starting 9 February. The Interior Minister, Ould Kablia, responded that "No march would be authorised by the authorities in Algiers... Marches are forbidden in Algiers."
Meanwhile, the mainly Kabyle-based secularist RCD party had announced plans for a march for democracy to be held on Saturday 22 January, despite being refused permission by the government under the state of emergency. Prior to the March, RCD leader Saïd Sadi linked the planned march to the 2010–2011 Tunisian protests, stating, "If the opposition does not mobilise the crowds, we believe that we will have more devastating events than what happened in Tunisia. The anger here is bigger than (it was) in Tunisia." He also called for the 1992 state of emergency to be lifted and for the army to withdraw from politics, stating, "The army should no longer be a decision maker, it has to become a state institution." The march attracted about 300 people, and was broken up by the police; 42 people (according to the RCD) or 19 (according to the Interior Ministry) were injured, and 9, including the head of the party's parliamentary group Othman Amazouz, were arrested, to be released later the same day. Some demonstrators waved the Tunisian flag, alluding to the protests which had brought down Ben Ali. Would-be demonstrators coming from Tizi Ouzou were prevented from reaching the scene by the police. On 22 January, 20,000 police officers stopped all protests. In the ensuing clash five people were killed and more than 800 others hurt.
On 23 January, the FFS and LADDH jointly issued a demand for the release of the demonstrators arrested in early January, in Tizi-Ouzou and elsewhere; students of Tizi-Ouzou announced plans for a march on 1 February demanding their release and economic development for Kabylie.
On 29 January, the RCD organised a march of over ten thousand people (according to the organisers) in the city of Bejaia, to demand more freedom and democracy.
Early February 2011
Protests continued on 3 February. On the same day President Abdelaziz Bouteflika signaled at a meeting with government ministers his intention to lift the 19-year-old state of emergency in the "very near future", in what was seen as an attempt to quell opposition demands. Reportedly, he also urged the cabinet to adopt measures to promote job creation and said Algeria's TV and radio should give airtime to all political parties. On 4 February, Al Jazeera reported that demonstrations were planned for 12 February.
While Bouteflika was said to be working to counter the planned demonstration, on 8 February university students commenced an "indefinite strike" in protest against the "poor quality of teaching." On the same day, an indefinite strike was also launched by professional paramedics after a call by the trade union SAP. However, it was reported to have been observed in only 22 of the country's 48 provinces.