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Algeria: protesters clash with police for second day

September 3, 2021 at 10:12 am

An Algerian anti-government demonstrator waves an Amazigh (Berber) flag during a protest in the capital Algiers, on March 12, 2021 [RYAD KRAMDI/AFP via Getty Images]

Protesters clashed with the police in eastern Algeria on Thursday for the second day running, the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH) and local media have reported. The protests were organised following the authorities’ ban of a rally organised in support of detained activists.

According to Radio M, the police hurled tear gas grenades to disperse the protesters. It pointed out that all of the protesters arrested on Wednesday have been released.

LADDH said on social media that the clashes took place in Kherrata. The city is the birthplace of the anti-regime popular movement.

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. They demanded a change in the regime that had been ruling the country since independence in 1962.

“Kherrata is a symbol of the peaceful movement,” said LADDH. It called for “caution and calm and the preservation of the peaceful nature of the struggle.”

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