Delighted because Algeria has uncompromisingly been one of South Africa’s firmest friends.

As correspondent to the United Nations, I recall Algerians playing key roles in the world organization’s Special Committee Against Apartheid.

They travelled the world gleaning evidence from victims of apartheid and publishing annual reports to fuel the onslaught against the regime in the UN Security Council and General Assembly.

Not surprisingly when Morocco invaded and occupied neighbouring Spanish Sahara in 1975 following the departure of the colonial power after the death of dictator Franco, Algeria offered shelter to Western Sahara refugees and has remained the strongest backer of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic.

The international blage about the stubborn, independent-spirited Algerians is that if they fall into a hole, they tend to keep digging.

In the time of my first visit in 1995 they were delving their way out of the Islamist nightmare that began in 1992 when the military annulled elections and took power.

Algerians baulked at this being called a coup and the ensuing six  years of violence that claimed at least 150 000 lives being labelled a civil war.

Whatever history judges them to be, those dark years are  now recognized as having been as costly as what Algerians call “the blessed liberation revolution” from  1954 to 1962 which won them independence from France.

Algeria was not looking at its best at the time, but it was immediately evident why France would gladly have given up  every other colonial asset it held in Africa if it could only have maintained its 132-year hold on Algeria.

Over the centuries, the largest and most powerful African mediterranean country has a history of wresting itself free of occupiers that included the Phoenicians, the Romans and the Ottomans.

I was put in the secure St George Hotel, which was used by General Dwight Eisenhower during World War II, and ordered stay put when my two bodyguards dropped me after the day’s programme.

A French journalist who had not heeded this advice a week before had his throat slit in the casbah.

More than 50 journalists were killed by jihadis that year.

After some days, the liaison man attached to me, who could not have organized the proverbial piss up in a brewery, confessed that he was in fact my third bodyguard.

Its bloody history has forced Algeria to become an international expert on combatting terrorism.

On a later visit, I attended an international conference in Algiers sponsored by the United Nations on beating violent extremists.

Then  there was  a similar gathering under African auspices.

I stayed at some of the capital’s s more auspicious hotels.

Each time I visited the Saharawi camps, I passed through Algeria.

My previous visit was to receive an award from President Abdelaziz Bouteflika for my coverage of the Western Sahara story.

In this latest visit I was accommodated  with other journalists invited to attend the seventh summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF).

The GECF holds three-quarters of the world’s natural gas reserves

No fewer than 10 heads of state attended the gathering at the impressive Abdelatif Rahal Centre Internationale de Conferences (CIC)

Each day, we were accompanied  to and from this facility along the coast from Algiers  by a police motorcyclist less than gently persuading  motorists to take way for the important visitors.

The presidents went one better. The roads were closed when they arrived at and left the centre.

Both the journalists and those national leaders lounging in their their long, black limousines passed, on their way to and from the summit, by Africa’s largest mosque.

With its minaret standing 280 meters tall the holy place has surpassed that mosque the Morocco that formerly held the title as the biggest.

The Chinese built structure can accommodate 200 000 faithful. The governments of Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Abdelmadjid Tebboune overcame delays and cost overruns and inaugurated it days before the opening of the summit.

It underlines Algeria’s role as the religious, economic, diplomatic, political and military leader of the Maghreb.

Security was tight at the ICI. We went through two metal detectors and pat downs to get into the press area.

We had to pass a COVID test to get into the building on the day the presidents were there.

Inside clockwork 150 computers running with super fast internet awaited journalists able to follow proceedings on giant screens in the media areas.

We were decided up by Algerian journalists wanting to knw what we expected of the meeting and what we thought of the facilities.

Most of these were young women. This was a dramatic change from my first visit when the remarkably brave young women I met were thin on the ground.

Merely going to and from work, they risked insults and even attacks from fundamentalists who insisted their place was at home tending to their families.

As a long-standing vegetarian I can offer limited praise for Algeria’s varied cuisine.

The Mediterranean plates offered in the leading country of the Maghreb – the place where the sun sets on the Arab world – competes deliciously with dishes served in the the Mashrek – the Mpumlanga of the Arab world where the sun rises.

The historic interest and natural beauty on offer in Algeria makes it well worth visiting.

While it offers exemplary facilities for conference and business visitors, it is has all the attributes to become a tourist mecca. 

Right now it relies on substantial income from oil and gas to boost the standard of living  of it 44,6-million people.

Certainly the 5-million inhabitants of Algiers live at a standard equal to those of the counterparts on the northern shores of the Mediterranean.

When  the tourists start coming to enjoy the coast, the High Atlas mountains of the north, the semi arid high plateaus in the centre and the vast Sahara to the South, we will see nothing short of a  bonanza.

Ends 

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They say Karim Tabbou will face another trial starting today.

ends intro

It is like a tale out of the bygone Algeria run by the military and an authoritarian president.

Karim Tabbou was one of those whose persistent protests brought down Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

But those demonstrations persisted after the military took control and called early elections.

Karim Tabbou has been held since last September.

He was found guilty of undermining national unity and sentenced to six months in jail.

That sentence was doubled yesterday and Tabbou now faces new charges of supporting the protest group known as Hirak and of criticizing the army

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Chloroquine was praised as a potential coronavirus cure by US President Donald Trump. 

Two Nigerian who tried have ended up in hospital being treated for poisoning.

ends intro

The treatment protocol cautiously adopted by Algerian health authorities is highly conditional. They say it has  reduced fever and inflammation in some COVID 19 cases.

Chloroquine is one of he oldest and best known anti-malarial drugs. However the malaria virus has been immune to it for decades.

The World Health Organisation says there’s no definitive evidence of chloroquine being effective against coronavirus. 

There is only anecdotal evidence by  some Algerian doctors.

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It has reported nine cases, bringing the number to 17. Sixteen of these are from the same family.

ends intro

The first coronavirus import into Algeria came from an Italian businessman.

Since then authorities have identified 16 more. They’re all from the same family in Blida, about 30 kms south of the capital Algiers.

Hospitals and medical staff in the region have been alerted and authorities are trying to trace everyone the family has recently come into contact with.

The family is believed to have caught the virus from a man and his daughter who came from France.

They tested positive for COVID19 after they returned to France

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Earlier this week the UN health body  identified Algeria, along with South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Egypt as the African countries where coronavirus was most likely to access the continent.

Algeria’s Health Minister Shamsuddin Shitor says the COVID19 carrier is an Italian man who entered the North African country nine days ago.

He has been quarantined.

Shitor says the coronavirus carrier was identified thanks to Algerian authorities vigilance at all land, sea and air entries into the country.

Another foreign national thought to be Africa’s first coronavirus case was identified in Egypt seven days ago. 

He has since been cleared, say Cairo authorities.

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But although the transitional government in Khartoum accepts the  inevitability of this, there are many hurdles to clear before it happens.

The extradition of ousted President Omar Al Bashir and other members of his regime wanted by the International Criminal Court is an integral part of peace negotiations on Darfur.

Khartoum authorities are saying its rests very heavily on a sustainable agreement being negotiated on Sudan’s troubled western region.

Most importantly it depends on what happens after the ICC has tried Al Bashir.

Sudan’s new government wants him back home to stand trial for crimes committed since the 1998 coup that brought him to power.

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He’s speaking in Algiers where he’s visiting with a strong business delegation.

Turkey’s taken sides in Libya, physically supporting the United-Nations-backed Government of National Accord.

So President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s exchanges on Libya with his Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tabboune, who strongly rejects any foreign interference in their eastern neighbour with whom they share a 1 000km border, will have been interesting.

Erdogan accuses Libyan rebel leader Khalifa Haftar of breaking the truce signed in Berlin earlier this month.

The United Nations fears both sides in the intractable conflict have been acquiring heavy weapons and armoured vehicles despite the agreement in Berlin to enforce the 2011 arms embargo on Libya. 

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The general will be best remembered for telling veteran President Abdelaziz Bouteflika he had to step down 

No details have been given for the cause of the death of one the last veterans of Algerian 1954-1962 war of independence with France.

Ahmed Gaid Salah became de facto leader of Algeria after Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s departure last April.

Pro-democracy protestors rejected the election he called on December 11, saying he was using it to cling to the power and influence held by the military and political elite since 1962.

Three days 0f mourning have been announced for the general who is replaced by General Said Chengriha.

Salah was particularly close to Algeria’s new President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

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The ceremony took place with youthful protestors,  who have rejected last week’s election,  still on the streets.

Abdelmadjid Tebboune was sacked as Prime Minister by Abdelaziz Bouteflika who resigned last April after months of protestors by young people calling themselves the HIRAK.

They’ve rejected the election calling it a ploy by the ruling elite to retain the power they’ve held since Algeria became independent from France in 1962.

Tebboune is close to armed forces chief Ahmed Gaid Salah who attended the ceremony along with the four defeated presidential candidates.  He has promised to extend a hand to HIRAK, appoint young ministers and push for a new constitution.

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Protestors who forced former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to resign last April have dismissed the poll as a sham.

Earlier today, it was announced that Abedlmajid Tebboune had won 38 percent of the vote, necessitating a run off.

The final result gives him 20 percent more of the poll which was the lowest in Algeria’s history.

This fuels the charges of a stitch up by protestors, calling themselves the Hirak, who  say the election is a pretext for the corrupt old establishment and military brass, who’ve held power since Algeria’s independence from France in 1962, to stay at the helm.

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