Ghardaïa : Second youngster dies in new flare up of inter-community violence

Another young man reportedly died of his wounds Thursday in Algeria’s southern city of Ghardaïa, bringing to five the number killed during weeks of violence between two rival communities, local sources said.

The latest death came as the interior minister and National Police and National Gendarmerie chiefs visited the city of 90,000 inhabitants, which has been rocked since December by clashes between the Chaamba community of Arab origin and the majority Mozabites.

“A youngster died on Thursday afternoon. His wounds were so bad that he still hasn’t been identified”, according to local sources

It was the second fatality in two days, after a 20-year-old was stabbed to death on Wednesday, a community leader said.

The state minister and minister of interior and local assemblies Tayeb Belaiz affirmed in the troubled province of Ghardaia in southern Algeria that the full force of the laws of the Republic would be brought to bear on those who seek to breach people’s security and properties.

Interior minister Tayeb Belaiz announced by the same token the setting up as from Thursday of a security operational centre managed by both the National Gendarmerie and the National Police and aimed at restoring law and order and halting violent inter-community scuffles in this province.

Such a decision was taken after a special assessment meeting which brought together in Ghardaia city the interior minister Tayeb Belaiz and the National Gendarmerie and National Police Chiefs respectively Major General Ahmed Boustila and Abdelghani Hamel and other senior officials.

The interior minister also said that the State would act with rigor and equity and in abidance with the judicial decisions against the rioters and criminals.

Evoking the recent security decisions taken by local security officials in Ghardaia, Mr. Tayeb Belaiz also said that the measures would be intensified to definitely restore order and quietude in the whole region.

Interior Minister Tayeb Belaiz vowed to boost security in Ghardaia and underlined “the determination of the state to vigorously apply the law” in the face of violence against people and property.

Belaiz, who was accompanied by police chief Abdelghani Hamel and the head of the national gendarmerie, Ahmed Bousteila, announced a new security operations center to be jointly run by the two forces.

“The security structures in the region of Ghardaia will be multiplied three- or four-fold, to completely restore peace and order,” he said.

The interior minister was entrusted by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika with finding ways and means to restore calm and order in the Southern province of Ghardaia with the close involvement of the various local representatives of the civil society.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Belaiz and high officials including the National Gendarmerie  Commander in chief  Major General Ahmed Boustila and DGSN Chief Abdelghani Hamel  presented their condolences to the families of the three victims of the recent bloody events which beset both Ghardaia and the nearby town of Guerrara.

Sporadic and fresh scuffles between groups of rival youths were still reported overnight by some journalists in some areas in Ghardaia and continued until the morning.

An important security apparatus has been deployed there to head off any further skirmishes, which also caused many injured and substantial material damage caused by acts of looting and acts of arson in several districts of the battered city.

Local political and religious figures as well as wise men have renewed their calls for calm, dialogue, tolerance and understanding among the residents of the various localities of Ghardaia province in a bid to defuse the current tensions and halt the unabated violence there.