Algeria Violently Suppresses Protest by Retired Soldiers

Algerian police has crackdown on Algerian retired soldiers who were violently prevented from staging a protest in Algiers to demand better wages and improved living conditions.

In Boumerdes, a group of soldiers was violently dispersed as videos shared on Algerian social media showed Police dispersing the crowd using teargas and causing many injuries.

The violent response by the Algerian regime to demands of social character shows its fragility as clans with vested interest in the status quo are campaigning for a fifth term of ailing President Bouteflika.

As a heavily centralized state, the Algerian regime has reinforced security presence in the capital Algiers to stifle dissent and disperse protests and sit-ins.

This all happens in a country that has squandered its oil mantra buying unnecessary arms and spending lavishly on arming the Polisario militias to unsettle its neighbor Morocco.

Polisario diplomats and offices abroad are all funded by the Algerian government, which at the same time ironically asks its own citizens to accept austerity measures in an economy hit by lower oil prices.