Algerians welcome New Year with a series of protests

The first day of the year 2012 has witnessed dozens protests across a number of provinces of the country where the inhabitants blocked roads and took to the streets to slash out at the local officials for not fulfilling their promises in terms of housing, electricity and water supply.

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• The protesters vowed to intensify their movement in the future if those officials fail to live up to their expectations.

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• For instance, the inhabitants of the locality of Soumaa, in the province of Blida, 40 KMS west of Algiers, have blocked the main road to traffic to denounce the laxity of the local officials and their inability to fulfil their demands including gas supply and road building.

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• The protesters have indicated to Echouorouk that their locality is a deprived area lacking basic commodities like gas and elementary school. They have also accused the local authorities of disregarding their requests on several occasions.

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• Similarly, the province of Bouira has witnessed an unprecedented wave of protests across all its localities. The inhabitants of the locality of Ben Haroun have taken to the streets to express their anger at the power outages that affected their locality for more than a month.

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• They have resorted to seize a vehicle belonging to the electricity and gas company “ Sonelgaz” and the municipality bus with the view to raising the authorities’ awareness.

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• The inhabitants of a slum in the province of Al -Aghouat, southern Algeria, have staged a rally nearby the real-estate promotion office and summoned the authorities to hand them out the keys of the housing units allocated to them.

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