On the night of September 22 to 23, 1997, the town of Bentalha, south of Algiers, experienced a massacre that claimed the lives of hundreds of people. Today, despite unemployment, the town has metamorphosed into a dynamic suburb
On this hot September day, the psychological support center in Bentalha, 15 kilometers south of Algiers, is bursting with life. As in a crèche, educators accompany the children to the canteen while others respond to requests from parents.
Due to the sweltering heat, the sports fields and recreational facilities inside this small estate remain deserted until the weather cools down at the end of the day. The aromas of the meals prepared in the kitchens whet the appetites of young and old alike.
While everyone is busy, Azzedine Boutrik oversees the proper functioning of the establishment managed by the National Foundation for the Promotion of Health and the Development of Research (FOREM).
The young thirties, dark and slender, is the coordinator of this space once dedicated to children traumatized by the war between the army in power and armed Islamist groups in the mid-1990s, the infamous black decade.
He receives us without protocol, in the huge library located on the floor of the main building. Around, shelves filled with books and tables surrounded by chairs. On certain walls of the reading room, around sofas placed to receive guests, are pasted drawings that recall the tragic past of the city.
“These are sketches of child victims of terrorism. We kept the drawings from the first days of their arrival in the center and those from the following weeks: the evolution is clear,” Azedine told Middle East Eye. He shows us two drawings of the same child; in the first, he drew scenes of horrors, in the second, the scene has changed: We see a flowery house in front of which children play quietly. It takes us back 25 years.
“Scenes of Horror”
On the night of September 22 to 23, 1997, dozens of armed Islamists burst into several neighborhoods of the small town of Bentalha.
Among the houses plunged into darkness, only the cries of the victims and the whistling of bullets break the silence of this accursed night. In the early morning, once calm has returned, the inhabitants, just like the journalists alerted at dawn, discover the horror: from 200 to 400 dead according to the balance sheets, of both sexes, of all ages.
“We went around all the houses affected. They were scenes of horror. But to this day, I still don’t know what happened that night,” Hocine Yacef, 80, told MEE.
According to the media and repentants (Islamist fighters who have surrendered), massacres like that of Bentalha responded to a logic of revenge by the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which blamed the Algerians – in particular in this district were members of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS), a competing political formation – for not having wanted to join the camp which sought to establish an Islamic State.
“Some have made a success of their life. This is the case of a computer scientist who is well established and who comes to give us a hand from time to time”
– Azedine Boutrik, director of the Bentalha psychological support center
This former retired history teacher lives in the Hai-Djilali district, which he had joined six years before the tragedy. From the terrace of his imposing, still unfinished house, built in his property located at the corner of a street, his family, heard the shouts and the gunshots.
Then, once the funeral was over, life resumed.
To cope with the trauma of dozens of children who lost almost everything, FOREM set up a psychological aid center just after the killings. Dozens of orphaned children have been taken in there. Now cured, they have all left the center.
“Some have made a success of their life. This is the case of a computer scientist who is well established and who comes to give us a hand from time to time”, proudly confides Azedine Boutrik.
Twenty-five years after the events, the FOREM center has changed its vocation. It now hosts 220 orphans from across the region, supported by donors who act as sponsors by supporting one or more children.
Like the psychological assistance center, the whole of Bentalha – which has more than 25,000 inhabitants – has changed. Apart from the bullet holes that are still visible on a house or physical or psychological scars, there is nothing left of this night of horror.
The roads and alleys of the village built on the agricultural lands of the Mitidja (plain around Algiers) are all paved. Green spaces give a luxuriant aspect to certain places in spite of the dryness which prevails in the end of summer.
Near the district of Boudoumi, one of the most affected by the drama is built a city made up of 700 social housing units, built in particular to cope with the demographic pressure linked to the arrival of new inhabitants in the early 2000s. There is a school, administration, a post office and local shops.
At the other end of the village, to the north, the authorities have built a set of nearby sports grounds. To the west, a huge sports complex project comprising a stadium, a swimming pool and a hotel is under construction. It is in addition to the National Football Team Preparation Center built in the neighboring town of Sidi Moussa.
“Unemployment, the biggest problem”
In the middle of the flat square buildings, young people gather in small groups. As in many popular neighborhoods, the young people of Bentalha, mostly born after 1997, are unemployed.
“We have no work. Here, there is nothing. The officials visit us, leave, and we stay here counting the hours”
– A youth from Bentalha
“We have no work. Here, there is nothing. The officials visit us, leave, and we stay here counting the hours”, testifies a young man who, out of suspicion, refuses to give his identity. He goes back to chatting with his friends.
“Here, the biggest problem is unemployment,” agrees Hocine Yacef.
Like many residents of Bentalha, Mohamed Ait-Youcef, who recently rented a small house in the neighborhood, is unemployed. He hopes that the construction of the sports complex or the development of the Oued el-Harrach, the river located on the edge of the town, will be able to offer some outlets. Nothing more.
A town official told MEE that the unemployment rate there is over 35%, especially among young people.
Pending the establishment of new businesses to absorb unemployment, the authorities are trying to improve the living environment of the inhabitants. In 2018, they organized a reforestation campaign. Thousands of trees have been planted, giving a picturesque view to this locality whose once fertile agricultural fields are now covered with concrete: dozens of brand new buildings are ready to welcome thousands of new inhabitants. A way to give a new aspect to this locality.
