Algerian youth eye Tebboune’s reelection bid with hope and skepticism

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People walk past an electoral banner of President Abdelmajid Tebboune in the center of Algiers. About 24 million Algerians are poised to head to the polls on Saturday. (AFP)
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Supporters of President of Algeria’s Islamist Movement for the Society and Peace (MSP) and presidential candidate Abdelaali Hassani Cherif, attend his electoral campaign in Algiers on Sept. 3, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 06 September 2024
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Algerian youth eye Tebboune’s reelection bid with hope and skepticism

  • The president has pledged to create 450,000 jobs and increase monthly unemployment benefits

ALGIERS: Young people comprise more than half of Algeria’s 45 million people, and many are anxious for change. But with incumbent President Abelmadjid Tebboune set for an easy reelection on Saturday, some fear it won’t be forthcoming.

Courting the youth vote, Tebboune has promised more jobs, a higher minimum wage, and better unemployment benefits.
This reflects high unemployment in Algeria, where one in three young people is out of work.
Tebboune came to power after the youth-driven Hirak pro-democracy protests ousted his veteran predecessor Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in 2019.
But the movement waned, and many of its supporters have become disenchanted.

BACKGROUND

Today, Algeria stands as Africa’s top gas exporter and third-largest economy, with President Abelmadjid saying his tenure helped achieve that despite ‘a war against COVID-19 and corruption.’

“The past five years brought nothing new,” Abdenour Benkherouf, a 20-year-old hairdresser wandering with a friend in downtown Algiers, said.
“We haven’t seen anything good since 2019, since we won the African Cup,” he smirked.
Karim Beldjoudi, his friend who was wearing a Barcelona football shirt, agreed.
“We’re living now as we lived then,” he said, referring to 2019, the year Tebboune was elected in a widely boycotted poll.
“Five years have gone by just like that, one after the other,” said Beldjoudi, who is unemployed.
Today, about a third of Algeria’s 24 million registered voters are under 30. However, as in 2019, when a record 60 percent of voters abstained, the majority will likely still not vote.
No official figures show the abstention rate among the young in Algeria, where 23 million people are younger than 30.
This constitutes a challenge for Tebboune, who claimed the presidency amid a record abstention rate of 60 percent five years ago.
At a recent rally in Oran last month, he pledged to create 450,000 jobs and increase monthly unemployment benefits if reelected.
Launched in 2022, unemployment benefits now provide 13,000 dinars ($97) to people aged 19 to 40. Tebboune has promised to raise this to 20,000 dinars, which would match the current minimum wage.
Fouad Brahimi, a 22-year-old artist, said this wouldn’t be enough.
“We need job opportunities because this allowance is not sustainable,” he said.
Although Algeria’s economy has grown at an annualized rate of about 4 percent over the past two years, it remains heavily dependent on oil and gas to fund its social assistance programs.
“Tebboune has indeed put in work, but he is also perpetuating a project left by his predecessors,” Brahimi added.
Tebboune had referred to Bouteflika’s rule as a “decade of the mafia” when wealth was concentrated in the hands of a “gang.”
Today, Algeria stands as Africa’s top gas exporter and third-largest economy, with Tebboune saying his tenure helped achieve that despite “a war against COVID-19 and corruption.”
Standing by an election poster of Tebboune, 21-year-old Chadli Isshak said that because of the pandemic, the president “wasn’t able to fulfill all his promises.”
“He did create jobs and is reducing Algeria’s debt,” said the student.
“But two or three years have not been enough for him to do everything he wanted,” he added.
“We will see in his second term if he can keep his promises.”
Sami Rahmani, 39, said he was satisfied with the president’s record despite being unemployed.
“He has worked hard, and I would like to see him do more in the upcoming five years,” he said.
“He should look into helping the marginalized youth. We have people with diplomas but no jobs.”
Each year, thousands of graduates resign themselves to jobs that do not match their degrees, working in precarious and, at times, informal jobs such as street vending.
Rahmani said his support for Tebboune had made him a “traitor to the Hirak” in the eyes of others.
The movement withered with the onset of the pandemic, coupled with ramped-up policing and a sweeping crackdown on protesters in which hundreds were arrested.
Faced with disillusionment, many young Algerians have left the country, formally, through student and other visas or via makeshift boats in the hope of crossing the Mediterranean to Europe.
Benkherouf and Beldjoudi, the friends interviewed by AFP in the city center, said most people their age “now have the same dream: harga,” referring to irregular migration.

 


Iran says killed eight militants since attack on police in province bordering Pakistan

Updated 6 sec ago
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Iran says killed eight militants since attack on police in province bordering Pakistan

  • Militants from the Jaish Al-Adl group killed 10 police officers during a raid in Sistan-Baluchistan province on October 26
  • Sistan-Baluchistan, which straddles border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, is one of Iran’s most impoverished provinces

TEHRAN: Iran’s military has killed eight militants in an operation in the restive southeast since a deadly attack last month on a police station, state media reported Tuesday.
Militants from the Pakistan-based Jaish Al-Adl group killed 10 police officers during a raid on October 26 in Sistan-Baluchistan province — one of the deadliest attacks in the region in recent months.
Sistan-Baluchistan, which straddles the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, is one of Iran’s most impoverished provinces.
It has long been a flashpoint for cross-border attacks by separatists and extremists, opposed to the authorities in Iran.
Revolutionary Guards commander Ahmad Shafahi said “a total of eight terrorists have been killed” since the beginning of operations in the province, according to the official IRNA news agency on Tuesday.
“Fourteen other terrorists have been arrested,” including key figures involved in the attack, he said, adding security forces seized weapons and ammunition.
Shortly after the attack in Taftan county, some 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran, a report on the Tasnim news agency said four militants had been killed and four others arrested.
Late on Monday, IRNA quoted Guards ground forces commander Mohammad Pakpour as saying the attackers “were not Iranian,” though he did not specify their nationalities.
In early October, at least six people including police officers were killed in two separate attacks in the province.
Jaish Al-Adl said on Telegram they had carried out the attacks.
Formed in 2012 by Baluch separatists, the group is proscribed as a “terrorist organization” by both Iran and the United States.
 
 


Over 100 patients to be evacuated from Gaza, WHO says

Updated 43 min 41 sec ago
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Over 100 patients to be evacuated from Gaza, WHO says

  • The patients will travel in a large convoy on Wednesday via the Kerem Shalom crossing

GENEVA: More than 100 patients including children suffering from trauma injuries and chronic diseases will be evacuated from Gaza on Wednesday in a rare transfer out of the war-ravaged enclave, a World Health Organization official said.
“These are ad hoc measures. What we have requested repeatedly is a sustained medevac (medical evacuation) outside of Gaza,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, adding that 12,000 people were awaiting transfer.
The patients will travel in a large convoy on Wednesday via the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel before flying to the United Arab Emirates, he added, and then a portion will travel to Romania.


Iran says two French detainees held in good conditions

Updated 05 November 2024
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Iran says two French detainees held in good conditions

  • In recent years, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on charges related to espionage and security

DUBAI: Two French citizens detained in Iran since May 2022 are in good health and being held in good detention conditions, Iran’s judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said on Tuesday, according to state media.
Last month, France’s foreign ministry said the conditions that three of its nationals were being held in by Iran were unacceptable.
“According to the relevant authorities, these two people have good conditions in the detention center and are in good health, so any claim regarding their conditions being abnormal is rejected,” Jahangir said.
The spokesperson was referring to Cecile Koehler and Jacques Paris, who he said were arrested on charges of espionage and will have their next court hearing on Nov. 24.
Jahangir did not mention the third French national detained in Iran. French media have disclosed only his first name, Olivier.
In recent years, Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have arrested dozens of dual nationals and foreigners, mostly on charges related to espionage and security.
Rights groups have accused Iran of trying to extract concessions from other countries through such arrests.


Israeli strikes in Gaza, West Bank leave dozens dead

Updated 36 min 1 sec ago
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Israeli strikes in Gaza, West Bank leave dozens dead

  • Airstrikes in Gaza kill at least 30, Palestinian medics and media say
  • Israeli military says it ‘eliminated terrorists’ in latest operations

CAIRO/QABATIYAH: Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip and West Bank have resulted in significant casualties, as conflict in the region intensifies.

Since Monday night, at least 30 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, with strikes leveling buildings and tightening sieges on northern areas of the enclave, according to Palestinian media and medical sources.

In Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza, two houses were heavily damaged in an airstrike, killing at least 20 people late on Monday, as reported by WAFA and Hamas-linked media. The Gaza health ministry has not immediately verified this toll. Additionally, four people were reported dead in the central town of Al-Zawayda around midnight.

Meanwhile, six more Palestinians died in separate airstrikes on Gaza City and Deir Al-Balah. The Israeli military claimed that its forces had "eliminated terrorists" in central Gaza and Jabalia and uncovered weapons and explosives in the southern area of Rafah, where it had also dismantled "terrorist infrastructure."

Reports from the ground suggest that Israel's tactics aim to clear northern Gaza towns and refugee camps to establish buffer zones, a strategy Israel says has successfully neutralized hundreds of Palestinian fighters in Jabalia over the past month.

More than 43,300 Palestinians have died in Gaza over a year of fighting, and much of the region has been devastated. The conflict initially erupted following Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 Israelis and resulted in 251 hostages being taken to Gaza.

Violence has also erupted in the occupied West Bank. On Tuesday, Israeli airstrikes killed four Palestinians in separate incidents during two military operations.

In Tammun, near Tubas, two Palestinians died, one of whom was severely mutilated, according to the city’s governor, Ahmad Assad.

The health ministry in Ramallah confirmed the deaths, noting that the identity of one victim remains unverified and that the army is withholding the body.

In a separate airstrike in Qabatiyah near Jenin, two more Palestinian men, aged 40 and 38 and reportedly related, were killed, confirmed Kamal Abu Rubb, governor of Jenin.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to inquiries about these operations. The West Bank has seen escalating violence since the onset of the Gaza conflict, with at least 754 Palestinians killed in the territory by Israeli forces or settlers, according to the health ministry in Ramallah.

In contrast, Palestinian attacks have claimed 24 Israeli lives during the same period, according to official Israeli sources.


Sudan paramilitaries kill 10 civilians: activists

Updated 05 November 2024
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Sudan paramilitaries kill 10 civilians: activists

PORT SUDAN: Ten civilians were killed in the central Sudanese state of Al-Jazira, pro-democracy activists said on Tuesday, in an attack they blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The Madani Resistance Committee, one of hundreds of volunteer groups coordinating aid across the country, said the RSF carried out the killings on Monday night in the village of Barborab, about 85 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of the state capital Wad Madani.