First Independent Mena Newspaper
The 2020 International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) has gone to Algerian author Abdelouahab Aissaoui for his book ‘Spartan Court’. The Djelfa-born author was announced winner of the IPAF Tuesday in Abu Dhabi by the organizers who streamlined the ceremony due to movement restriction imposed by the UAE because of the novel coronavirus. Aissaoui receives […]
The failure of major oil exporting countries to reach an agreement about a 10 million bpd reduction was received in Algeria as an omen that would further aggravate state finances as it struggles to maintain a social peace based on lavish spending. Algeria saw its reserves shrink from $179 billion in 2014 to less than […]
The United States has opposed the choice of former Algerian foreign minister Ramtane Lamamra as UN Special Envoy to crisis-hit neighboring Libya to replace Lebanese Ghassan Salame, who resigned in March. A UN diplomat who asked not be named because not allowed to speak on the matter told AFP that during Wednesday UN closed session […]
The UN Security Council has reiterated the parameters it had set out in its resolutions 2414, 2440, 2468, and 2494 to achieve a final solution to the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara. The Security Council members made it clear at a briefing on the Moroccan Sahara issue, held Thursday, that there is no other […]
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread around the world, the populations sequestered in the Tindouf camps, Southern Algeria, are left to fend for themselves in dreadful conditions, while the Polisario leaders are enjoying their comfortable life in their air-conditioned villas in the city of Tindouf as the Algerian authorities closed access to the camps […]
The European Union Wednesday said it provided Algeria with €75 million to support the North African country in its struggle to tackle the growing number of patients of novel coronavirus disease, TSA reports. Oliver Varhelyi, the European Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, said he expressed in a phone call with the Algerian […]
Algeria’s central bank Tuesday issued a stimulus package including ability for retail lenders to defer loan payments for firms, which have been financially affected by the coronavirus crisis. Banks will continue to finance customers benefiting from loan payment deferrals, while reducing their minimum liquidity requirement to raise funding levels. The North African country has been […]
The Covid-19 pandemic, which affected so far 1,423 and killed 173 people in Algeria, does not prevent the Algerian justice system from punishing “Hirak” activists and journalists. On Monday, Abdelouahab Fersaoui, president of the Rassemblement-Actions-Jeunesse (RAJ), an association at the forefront of the anti-regime popular movement, known as “Hirak”, was handed a one year in […]
A court in capital Algiers Wednesday pressed a 15-year prison sentence associated with a $80,000-fine against former head of the national police, Major General Abdelghani Hamel, charged with corruption and illicit enrichment. The Sidi M’hamed court also handed individual sentences to the family of the General and their company. Hamel’s wife Lanani Salima is handed […]
China will build a Coronavirus protection hospital in Algeria to help the North African country tackle the increasing spread of the disease, which has already infected 584 people, Chinese news agency Xinhua reports. The agency has not provided information on the date building will commence but said 4,000 Chinese workers will be working on the […]