Yearbook 2010
Algeria. In April, in order to fight the al-Qaeda
militant organization in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Algeria and
neighboring countries Mali, Mauritania and Niger established
a joint military command in April based in the city of
Tamanrasset in the Sahel in southern Algeria. The purpose
was mainly joint intelligence work on terrorism and
organized crime in the border between the countries. But the
cooperation sparked, Algeria, for example, was critical of
Mali in exchange for a kidnapped Frenchman releasing four
suspected jihadists and also disallowing partner countries
to cooperate with France and the United States. And the
violence continued. Eleven Algerian gendarmes were killed
June 30 in a grenade attack in the city of Tinzaouatine near
the Mali border. In November, the government decided to
equip civilians in violence-stricken areas with weapons so
that they could fight the jihadists.
According to
COUNTRYAAH, Algeria
has a population of 42.23 million (2018). The country's highest police chief, Colonel Ali Tounsi,
was shot dead on February 25 at his workplace in the
capital, Alger. According to the home ministry, the culprit
was a Tounsi employee who acted in temporary confusion.
The resistance to the colonial rule
The lack of political rights and the settlers' control of
the administration - which was part of the French county
administration - did not allow the emergence of any
particular cooperative elite. Paternalistic racism was part
of the system, and a conservative interpretation of religion
meant that Islam could also be used to suppress opposition
to the colonial regime. Therefore, as a nationalist movement
emerged in the 1920s, it was no coincidence that it
originated from a religious reform movement ("ulémas") that
gave religion a critical social and nationalist content. The
first nationalist organization, Étoile North Africa
was founded in Paris in 1926. From 1927 it was led by
Messali Hadj, a charismatic leadership figure who until the
liberation war was the very personification of Algerian
nationalism. Messali Hadj was among the first to declare
armed liberation struggle, but he never joined the FLN
(Front de la Libération Nationale), and he was isolated both
during and after the liberation war. Another of the
nationalist leaders was Ferhat Abbas, who evolved from being
a reformist parliamentarian to forming his own nationalist
movement in 1943, to join the liberation movement (FLN) in
1956.
Nationalist resistance exploded in 1945 as the
celebrations of the victory over Nazism developed into a
popular uprising that was fiercely beaten: According to the
official French report, 45,000 Algiers and 108 Europeans
were killed. To stem the development of the rebellion, the
French gave a number of political concessions, allowing the
nationalist movement to found political parties and to
participate in the elections held by the colonial
authorities in 1948 and 51. Ferhat Abbas formed the UDMA
(Movement for the Triumph of Libertarian Democracy). Within
the MTLD, a semi-military organization, OS (Organization
Spéciale), was led by Ahmed Ben Bella. The OS was quickly
disbanded by the French security police and the leaders were
arrested. Five of the central leaders of the OS later formed
an action committee, the CRUA (Committee of Revolutionary
pour l'unité et l'Action), which was to work for the
unification of the nationalist factions and for an armed
uprising. When the uprising began in November 1954, the
organization changed its name to FLN, and the military units
were organized as ALN (Armée de libération Nationale).
One of the members of the FLN was Franz Fanon. A doctor
from Martinique who during World War II had fought for the
liberation of France. He now joined the FLN and had great
theoretical significance, not only in the FLN itself but
throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
To preserve Algeria as a French, the French destroyed
8,000 villages in the following years, killed 1 million
civilian Algerians, carried out systematic torture and sent
more than 500,000 French soldiers to the country. (See
Algerian War.) Right-wing French settlers in Algeria formed
the dreaded Organization Armée Secrète (OAS - The Armed
Secret Organization), which mixed new fascism with the
French settlers' demands and opposition to the
ever-increasing Algerian influence. On March 18, 1962,
then-French President Charles de Gaulle finally signed the
Evian agreement, which included a ceasefire and a referendum
on self-determination. |
