Popular unrest decided le pouvoir (the powers-that-be) in favour of overseeing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's removal and throwing his kleptocratic clan to the wolves but it has held on to the model of military/security-led rule...
Direction Générale de la Surêté Nationale (DGSN) police deployments and arrests are at a level the authorities didn't dare as the Hirak mobilised tens of thousands from February 2019 to remove president Abdelaziz Bouteflika and then pressure the authorities for change (AC Vol 62 No 1 In intensive care & AC Vol 61 No 20 Which way is Tebboune facing...
Security forces scurried to secure Algiers' Grande Poste – the protestors' traditional rallying point – and town centres across Algeria as El Hirak returned to the streets to celebrate the second anniversary of the uprising that removed President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on 22 February 2019...
Opposition force El Hirak (The Movement) which led the protests that toppled then-President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in 2019 will take some convincing that Tebboune is the agent of change they are seeking...
Ex-president Abdelaziz Bouteflika's long infirmity is being cited as the precedent to avoid...
Supporters of President Abdelmajid Tebboune backed by army Chief of Staff Major General Saïd Chengriha have presided over the crushing of the oligarch culture that thrived under Abdelaziz Bouteflika forced out of office by popular protests in April 2019...
President Abdelmajid Tebboune's government is emerging from the coronavirus crisis financially much poorer but more politically secure as the lockdown has given the post-Abdelaziz Bouteflika regime opportunities to entrench itself while fighting the disease (AC Vol 61 No 2 Desperately seeking legitimacy)...
He will have to prove that what in 2017 seemed like a bold anti-corruption campaign targeting the Bouteflika clan wasn't just evidence of Gaïd Salah driving elite in-fighting to a new level which eventually drove Abdelaziz Bouteflika from office (AC Vol 58 No 17 The state stays captured)...
Meanwhile Hirak seems as rudderless as during its early days when Facebook groups first started calling disaffected Algerians onto the streets and before they forced President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and his clan to abandon the attempt to obtain a fifth term of office for the infirm raïs...
This has reflected suspicions at deals done by 'oligarch' businessmen like Ayoub Aissiou who was linked to the now imprisoned former premier Ahmed Ouyahia and ex-President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's brother Saïd (AC Vol 60 No 13 Rounding up unusual suspects)...
In the months since February security force décideurs have been toppled along with ex-President Abdelaziz Bouteflika his omnipresent brother Saïd Bouteflika four-time premier Ahmed Ouyahia and a number of crony business kingpins yet Gaïd Salah has not only retained control of the army but has been calling the shots within the interim government and an empowered judiciary (AC Vol 60 No 7 Protests flush out the old guard & Vol 60 No 13 Rounding up unusual suspects)...
