Algeria

Algeria is the second-largest country in Africa, with over four-fifths of its territory covered by the Sahara Desert. The country has a population of 35 million people mainly located near the northern coast.  

The country won its independence from France in 1962 in a war that began in 1954. Estimates of the war’s death toll vary but run as high as more than one million Algerians.

Algeria’s government has operated under a state of emergency for nearly two decades. Its battle with Islamic militants reached a peak in a brutal civil war in the 1990s, in which more than 100,000 people were killed. That conflict began after the military-backed government canceled elections that an Islamist party appeared poised to win.

Algeria remains an outlier in a region that was turned upside down by tumultuous political change set off by the revolution in neighboring Tunisia. Citizen resignation appears to be united with relative government immobility here, as a government led by an elderly and ailing president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, shows no sign of ceding power.

In May 2012, the government announced that the ruling party had strengthened its rule in parliamentary elections, a result that met with widespread skepticism. In fact, most Algerians — anywhere from 60 percent to 80 percent — boycotted the vote.

Despite the government’s heavy hand, militants have remained active in its empty spaces, including Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an offshoot formed primarily by Algerian extremists.

In January 2013, Algeria was drawn into the conflict in Mali, its neighbor to the south, when militants seized dozens of hostages from an internationally managed gas field in Algeria, saying the act was in retaliation for a French military assault on the Islamist extremists who had taken control of northern Mali.

The next day, Algerian forces launched a raid that led to days of fighting in the maze-like complex. The following week, the prime minister said that 37 hostages had been killed, including three Americans, and that 29 of the kidnappers had been killed and three had been captured.

The kidnapping was said by officials to be the work of Al Mulathameen, a group that broke away in 2012 from the Al Qaeda branch, and which is led by a militant and smuggler namedMokthar Belmokthar who has been active in politics, moneymaking and fighting for decades in the Sahel.

Background

Even before the Arab Spring revolts spread across the region in early 2011, in Algeria, a finely tuned mix of cash and crackdown, money and repression had muted demands for change and allowed the ruling elite to retain its grip. In Algeria, a young person can easily get a government loan of up to $300,000 to start a small business, on terms beyond generous. Like the oil-rich nations of the Persian Gulf, Algeria has been able to neutralize calls for reform with oil-generated cash reserves — $180 billion — and a government program to dole out money to restive youth.

At the same time, demonstrations are banned in Algiers; a short-lived protest movement in February 2011, a distant echo of Tunisia’s revolt, was quickly overwhelmed by security forces. The police are everywhere, and though criticism flows freely in the street, it is sometimes delivered anonymously, and with a glance over the shoulder.

But while there is palpable frustration with the ruling gerontocracy, there are also long memories of the 1990s, when 200,000 people died in the bloody suppression of an Islamist revolt. Tales of mutilated corpses and mass graves remain common currency.

The government has remained largely silent about the role of the security forces in the crackdown of the ’90s, which served as a potent warning to the people, just as its “opacity,” as a Western diplomat said, prevents ordinary citizens from seeing which direction, if any, the country is moving in.

Yet mindful of discontent, the state has dug deeply into its cash holdings. After the protests in 2011, the government turned on the spigots, analysts say. On highly favorable terms — rock-bottom interest rates, eight to nine years before repayment of principle — millions of dollars have been handed out to 19- to 40-year-olds who present plans to start, say, bus services, fast food restaurants or small-scale trucking operations. Sometimes the money simply disappears, through fraud.

The country cut its unemployment rate in half from 2000 to 2007, largely by public spending, making the rate “unsustainable,” the World Bank said in a report. Wages for civil servants have risen 34 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Opposition parties with long memories of compromises made during the decade of Islamist insurgency distrust one another and appear uninterested, for the moment, in coalescing around a common set of grievances.

For now, the street protests appear to be the expression of a minority, even among those who oppose the government. In particular, the political party leading the movement, the Rally for Culture and Democracy, is distrusted for having backed the army’s campaign against the Islamists in the 1990s.

Islamists Seize Foreign Hostages at Algerian Gas Field

Islamist militants seized a foreign-operated gas field in Algeria on Jan. 16, 2013, and took at least 20 foreign hostages, including Americans, according to an Algerian government official and the country’s state-run news agency, in what the attackers called a retaliation for the French-led military intervention in neighboringMali.

The Algerian agency said at least at least two people had been killed in the gas-field seizure, including one British national, and that the hostages included American, British, French, Norwegian and Japanese citizens.

Other news agencies said as many as 41 hostages were seized.

The attack on the gas field appeared to be the first retribution by the Islamists for the French armed intervention in Mali the previous week, potentially broadening the conflict beyond Mali’s borders and raising the possibility of drawing an increasing number of foreign countries directly into the conflict.

The attack occurred at the In Amenas gas field, the fourth largest gas development in Algeria, and at the In Amenas gas compression plant, which is operated by BP, the Norwegian company Statoil and the Algerian national oil company Sonatrach.

Fighters with links to Al Qaeda’s African affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to both Mauritanian and Algerian news agencies. They quoted militants claiming that the kidnappings were a response to the Algerian government’s decision to allow France to use its airspace to conduct strikes against Islamists in Mali.

In the hours following the kidnappings, a number of hostages managed to flee. The next day, Algerian forces attacked, releasing some hostages and killing the militants, though officials said some hostages were killed.

Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

Overview

Algeria is the second-largest country in Africa, with over four-fifths of its territory covered by the Sahara Desert. The country has a population of 35 million people mainly located near the northern coast.  

The country won its independence from France in 1962 in a war that began in 1954. Estimates of the war’s death toll vary but run as high as more than one million Algerians.

Algeria’s government has operated under a state of emergency for nearly two decades. Its battle with Islamic militants reached a peak in a brutal civil war in the 1990s, in which more than 100,000 people were killed. That conflict began after the military-backed government canceled elections that an Islamist party appeared poised to win.

Algeria remains an outlier in a region that was turned upside down by tumultuous political change set off by the revolution in neighboring Tunisia. Citizen resignation appears to be united with relative government immobility here, as a government led by an elderly and ailing president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, shows no sign of ceding power.

In May 2012, the government announced that the ruling party had strengthened its rule in parliamentary elections, a result that met with widespread skepticism. In fact, most Algerians — anywhere from 60 percent to 80 percent — boycotted the vote.

Despite the government’s heavy hand, militants have remained active in its empty spaces, including Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an offshoot formed primarily by Algerian extremists.

In January 2013, Algeria was drawn into the conflict in Mali, its neighbor to the south, when militants seized dozens of hostages from an internationally managed gas field in Algeria, saying the act was in retaliation for a French military assault on the Islamist extremists who had taken control of northern Mali.

The next day, Algerian forces launched a raid that led to days of fighting in the maze-like complex. The following week, the prime minister said that 37 hostages had been killed, including three Americans, and that 29 of the kidnappers had been killed and three had been captured.

The kidnapping was said by officials to be the work of Al Mulathameen, a group that broke away in 2012 from the Al Qaeda branch, and which is led by a militant and smuggler namedMokthar Belmokthar who has been active in politics, moneymaking and fighting for decades in the Sahel.

Background

Even before the Arab Spring revolts spread across the region in early 2011, in Algeria, a finely tuned mix of cash and crackdown, money and repression had muted demands for change and allowed the ruling elite to retain its grip. In Algeria, a young person can easily get a government loan of up to $300,000 to start a small business, on terms beyond generous. Like the oil-rich nations of the Persian Gulf, Algeria has been able to neutralize calls for reform with oil-generated cash reserves — $180 billion — and a government program to dole out money to restive youth.

At the same time, demonstrations are banned in Algiers; a short-lived protest movement in February 2011, a distant echo of Tunisia’s revolt, was quickly overwhelmed by security forces. The police are everywhere, and though criticism flows freely in the street, it is sometimes delivered anonymously, and with a glance over the shoulder.

But while there is palpable frustration with the ruling gerontocracy, there are also long memories of the 1990s, when 200,000 people died in the bloody suppression of an Islamist revolt. Tales of mutilated corpses and mass graves remain common currency.

The government has remained largely silent about the role of the security forces in the crackdown of the ’90s, which served as a potent warning to the people, just as its “opacity,” as a Western diplomat said, prevents ordinary citizens from seeing which direction, if any, the country is moving in.

Yet mindful of discontent, the state has dug deeply into its cash holdings. After the protests in 2011, the government turned on the spigots, analysts say. On highly favorable terms — rock-bottom interest rates, eight to nine years before repayment of principle — millions of dollars have been handed out to 19- to 40-year-olds who present plans to start, say, bus services, fast food restaurants or small-scale trucking operations. Sometimes the money simply disappears, through fraud.

The country cut its unemployment rate in half from 2000 to 2007, largely by public spending, making the rate “unsustainable,” the World Bank said in a report. Wages for civil servants have risen 34 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Opposition parties with long memories of compromises made during the decade of Islamist insurgency distrust one another and appear uninterested, for the moment, in coalescing around a common set of grievances.

For now, the street protests appear to be the expression of a minority, even among those who oppose the government. In particular, the political party leading the movement, the Rally for Culture and Democracy, is distrusted for having backed the army’s campaign against the Islamists in the 1990s.

Islamists Seize Foreign Hostages at Algerian Gas Field

Islamist militants seized a foreign-operated gas field in Algeria on Jan. 16, 2013, and took at least 20 foreign hostages, including Americans, according to an Algerian government official and the country’s state-run news agency, in what the attackers called a retaliation for the French-led military intervention in neighboringMali.

The Algerian agency said at least at least two people had been killed in the gas-field seizure, including one British national, and that the hostages included American, British, French, Norwegian and Japanese citizens.

Other news agencies said as many as 41 hostages were seized.

The attack on the gas field appeared to be the first retribution by the Islamists for the French armed intervention in Mali the previous week, potentially broadening the conflict beyond Mali’s borders and raising the possibility of drawing an increasing number of foreign countries directly into the conflict.

The attack occurred at the In Amenas gas field, the fourth largest gas development in Algeria, and at the In Amenas gas compression plant, which is operated by BP, the Norwegian company Statoil and the Algerian national oil company Sonatrach.

Fighters with links to Al Qaeda’s African affiliate, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to both Mauritanian and Algerian news agencies. They quoted militants claiming that the kidnappings were a response to the Algerian government’s decision to allow France to use its airspace to conduct strikes against Islamists in Mali.

In the hours following the kidnappings, a number of hostages managed to flee. The next day, Algerian forces attacked, releasing some hostages and killing the militants, though officials said some hostages were killed.