Despite the risk associated with the Covid-19 epidemic, thousands of people gathered in the streets of Algiers to demonstrate their opposition to the regime. It is the 56th consecutive Friday of mobilization of the popular protest movement ("Hirak") in Algeria.
The Algerian demonstrators, certainly less numerous than the past weeks but still as determined, gathered under the slogan: "The coronavirus does not scare us," said an AFP journalist. "Friday 56th. The coronavirus will not stop the people from continuing the peaceful revolution until the liberation of Algeria, ”reads a sign.
Canceled political and cultural rallies
Some activists, however, ask the question, on social networks at least, of a pause in the demonstrations. "Our Hirak is solid, it is not a" truce "to protect itself from the virus which will threaten it to disappear. So let's be responsible and take our precautions, ”pleads a surfer.
Algeria, where 26 cases of new coronavirus, have been identified to date, recorded this Thursday its first two deaths. Authorities decided on Tuesday to cancel all political, cultural and sporting rallies in order to prevent the spread of Covid-19, but the protesters were able to parade Friday afternoon in the center of the capital, under the surveillance of police officers all armed protective masks.
"More determined than ever"
Some demonstrators wear them. One of them, Sid Ahmed Hadji, a doctor in a public hospital, believes that "we must not go into alarmism". "We are not immune to contagion but that will not prevent us from continuing our fight," said the 50-year-old AFP. According to lawyer Noureddine Benissad, one of the tenors of the Algiers bar, who defends “hirakists”, “the Algerians are outside, more determined than ever. As long as the flame is lit, there is still hope. ”
“Hirak” marches, bringing together people despite fears of contagion, also took place in the provinces, notably in Oran and Mostaganem (north-west), according to social networks.
After obtaining the resignation of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in April, the protesters continue to demand a change in the "system" in place since independence in 1962.
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