Protesters clashed with police in Kherrata, in the east of Bejaia on Friday, September 3, for the second day of protests after the crackdown on a rally in support of detained activists.
“Resumption of riots in Kherrata,” said the vice-president of the Algerian League for Human Rights (Laddh), Saïd Salhi, who appealed for calm.
“Do not give in to manipulation, be vigilant. Kherrata is the symbol of the peaceful Hirak. Pacifism and solidarity will remain our only responses to repression and arbitrariness,” he added.
During yesterday’s rally, police dispersed the crowd using tear gas as well as arresting dozens of protesters.
Recently, when Algeria was hit in August by wildfires that devastated thousands of hectares of trees and killed at least 90 people, including some 30 soldiers who had been deployed to put out the fires, the government’s first response was to point the finger at arsonists and to vow to hunt them down.
In February 2019, hundreds of thousands of Algerians marched in Kherrata to reject the possibility of a fifth term in office for the then President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, asking for a change in the regime that had been ruling the country since its independence in 1962.
In February 2020, President Tebboune affirmed the Hirak was a “salutary phenomenon”, and called for vigilance, declaring that there are “signs of infiltration both from the inside and the outside.”
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