Algeria : spectre of death looming over contract teachers waging a protracted hunger strike

The Head of the National Public Health Council Doctor Houari Kaddour has said that the health condition of the 55 contractual teachers, who have been waging a hunger strike over professional claims for 30 days now, is most disquieting.

• He indicated that some of the hunger – strikers could pass away at any moment if they went on with their protest action.
• All the hunger – strikers, he said, are jolted between life and death adding that they have lost about 60 percent of their body weight.
• Some desperate hunger strikers have attempted to commit suicide by drinking a bottle of bleach.
• Reporters of the newspaper Echorouk who visited Wednesday the hunger strikers in Algiers saw for themselves the appalling situation they are facing day in, day out.
• They were told on the spot that the relevant authorities should relinquish their couldn’t care less attitude by seriously taking into account the striking teachers’ bona fide claims before it is too late.