Algeria: police find bodies of three women in one week

Security officers in Algeria have found the bodies of three women in a week as women’s groups organise demonstrations in protest at violence against women.

The badly-burnt body of a woman in her twenties was found next to a university campus on the outskirts of Tamanrasset in the south of the country. Two other bodies in a similar condition have been found in other areas within the past week.

One was a woman believed to be in her thirties whose body was found burned and covered with rubber tyres in a forest in Setif governorate. Another young woman was found burned in Boumerdes governorate, near the Algerian capital last week.

Nineteen-year-old Chaima was apparently kidnapped and raped before being murdered. A man has been arrested and has admitted killing Chaima after serving three years in prison for assaulting her and stalking her after his release.

As well as the demonstrations, feminist movements have demanded better protection for women in Algeria. They have called for support centres for the victims of violence to be established, and the imposition of maximum penalties on those found guilty of such attacks.

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