Algeria

26 Nov 2020; MEMO: Algeria has signed a contract to buy 14 Russian Sukhoi Su-57 bombers as the arms race with its neighbour Morocco intensifies, a Moroccan news site reported.

Media outlets quoted Russia's Sputnik as saying that the government of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had bought the fighter aircrafts from Russia for nearly $2 billion.

16 Nov 2020; MEMO: Algeria will reimpose restrictions to combat the spread of COVID-19 from November 17, including closing gyms, cultural centres, leisure venues, and used car markets, and limited opening hours for some businesses, the prime minister's office said on Sunday.

The new measures are aimed at coping with "the worrying phase that the country is experiencing in terms of the evolution of the epidemiological situation," it said in a statement.

ALGIERS/RABAT (Reuters) - The leader of the Polisario Front, Western Sahara’s independence movement, said on Saturday the group had ended a 29-year ceasefire with Morocco to resume its armed struggle following a border confrontation.

A collapse of the truce, which Morocco has said it intends to stick with, could reignite a long-dormant guerrilla war in the remote desert region and aggravate decades of friction between Morocco and neighbouring Algeria, which hosts the Polisario.

ALGIERS, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Algerian Health Minister Abderrahmane Benbouzid said on Thursday that his country was determined to acquire the vaccine against COVID-19 regardless of its price.

Benbouzid made the remarks at a press conference in the Algerian capital Algiers, the official APS news agency reported.

The minister added that Algeria has joined the COVAX group with other countries to guarantee the protection of its citizens through use of the vaccine against COVID-19.

01 Nov 2020; MEMO: On the eve of the referendum on constitutional amendments, which are supposed to meet their demands, residents of Bab El-Oued neighbourhood, the stronghold of the popular movement, in the Algerian capital, were divided over the modifications proposed by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

31 Oct 2020; MEMO: Algeria’s Grand Mosque, the third largest in the world after the holiest sites in Makkah and Madinah and the largest in Africa, was inaugurated on Wednesday evening on the occasion of the Mawlid, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)’s birthdate. The opening ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Andelaziz Djerad and other government officials.

29 Oct 2020; MEMO: Seven blocs in the Algerian parliament yesterday called on international human rights organisations to prosecute France over its incitement against Islam and insults against Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), Anadolu news agency reported.

28 Oct 2020; MEMO: Algeria’s president has been admitted to a specialised treatment unit in an army hospital, his office said on Tuesday, days before a critical referendum on changes he has pushed to the constitution.

The statement from the presidency carried on Algerian state media did not specify if Abdelmadjid Tebboune had tested positive for the coronavirus, but said his condition was stable and did not warrant any concern and that he was still working.

07 Oct 2020; MEMO: The association representing Islamic scholars in Algeria has expressed its reservations and concerns about some of the articles in the draft constitution which is due to be voted on in a referendum on 1 November. “These articles are a threat to the future of the nation,” said the association, “which everyone will be responsible for if we all keep silent or fail to draw attention to the danger and provide advice.”

30 Sep 2020; MEMO: Former UN diplomat and former Algerian Foreign Minister, Lakhdar Brahimi, hailed the global support for the Palestinian cause, Al-Watan Voice reported yesterday.