Haunted by Hirak, Algerian regime intensifies crackdown on peaceful opposition

Algeria is a closed off country. Since the military regime recycled itself under the new reign of Kingmaker General Shengriha and his civilian puppet President Tebboune, the country has sent scores of peaceful dissidents to jail and imposed a blackout on international media, preventing free reporting on the grim economic and social conditions in the country.

Most independent journalists have either been forced to exile or thrown in jail on sham charges, such as terrorism, undermining state security and working with foreign governments.

Haunted by Hirak or the pro-democracy mass protests that put an end to Bouteflika’s rule, Chengriha-Tebboune’s regime has used the Covid-19 pandemic to clamp down on the opposition sending to jail thousands of activists and amended the penal code to dismiss as terrorist peaceful opponents, such as the pro-independence MAK group or Rashad moderate Islamists.

Each day, the National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees (CNLD) – created in 2019 to monitor politically motivated detentions – announces new arrests, trials, releases, and judicial procedures.

Human Rights activist, Zaki Hannache, estimates the number of prisoners of free speech, currently in jail on charges of “terrorism” at 228 at least.

Fear of the Hirak exposed Algeria’s regime hypocrisy in claiming to stand by Palestine. So far only a single solidarity march with Gaza was allowed in Algiers in October. The March, according to participants, was dominated by the state henchmen who directed some of the slogans to slur on Morocco.

The specter of the Hirak has led Algeria’s military regime to take irrational decisions such as banning the country’s football league matches, under the pretext of showing solidarity with Palestine.

The Algerian state apparatus is well-aware of the existing triggers of a new Hirak: authoritarian rule, inflation, unemployment, and corruption. This combustible material is set to pile up as the state once again is eating into its foreign reserves to buy social peace through unsustainable subsidies, which are disbursed at the expense of undermining the medium-term economic outlook.

As the economic situation worsens, following a short bracket of expensive gas offered by the war in Ukraine, Algerian rulers continue to play by the same rules expecting different results. But as the economic crisis gradually erodes the finances of ordinary Algerians, the regime will resort to its usual repression tactics combined with distraction methods by seeking a foreign enemy to peg on its self-inflicted woes.