The Algerian authorities have set up a grid of the capital to prevent demonstrations on the occasion of the popular uprising of the Hirak which led, in 2019, to the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Roadblocks, helicopters in flight … Algiers has been squared by police since Monday morning after calls for demonstrations launched on the web, on the occasion of the second anniversary of the popular uprising of Hirak.
Police roadblocks have been set up on several roads leading to the capital, according to various testimonies collected by the AFP. Above the city, the sound of helicopters can be heard as a fine rain washes the streets in yesterday’s sandy wind.
To avoid delays due to traffic jams, some Algerians went out at dawn to return to work. “I came from Hamadi (east of Algiers). I must have started at five in the morning, said Hamid, a 54-year-old civil servant. Two and a half hours of traffic jam to arrive in the center because of the roadblocks of the gendarmerie and then the police. They check every car. ”
Launched on February 22, 2019, the Hirak, an unprecedented popular protest movement in Algeria, had pushed President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in power for two decades, to resign two months later. This peaceful movement had to suspend its weekly demonstrations in March because of the coronavirus epidemic, but it continues to demand the dismantling of the “system” in place since independence in 1962, synonymous in its eyes with authoritarianism and corruption. .
