2009 in Algeria - March

March

• March 3: Algerian state radio says that members of the Algerian military killed sixteen militants aligned to Al-Qaeda during the past weekend. The raid began on Friday near Blida, beginning with a tip from a terror support cell which was penetrated a week before. The government has killed one hundred and twenty members of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in the past six months.

• March 3: Candidates for the April 9 Algerian Presidential election number six, including incumbent President Bouteflika. The others are leftwinger Louisa Hanoune, the only woman candidate, nationalists Moussa Touati and Fawzi Rebaine, and Islamist politicians Mohammed Said (a moderate) and Djahid Younsie (a hardliner).

• March 9: At least two people died on March 7 during an attack on Algerian security forces in Tadmait, near Tizi Ouzou, about sixty miles east of Algiers.

• March 10: Nadjar Hadj Daoud was released from Chaabet Ennachine Prison in Ghardaia on Monday, March 9. Daoud, the managing director of Al-Waha (The Oasis) is a frequent critic of the corruption in the administration of Algerian President Bouteflika. His six-month jail sentence for defamation was issued by a minor court in 2005 and upheld by Algeria's highest court in 2008. Daoud was imprisoned for his article in Al Waha which described multiple rapes by a local government official against his female coworkers. Daoud was provisionally released by a judge following an assassination attempt almost one month ago.

• March 14: Algerian border guards seized 3.5 tons of cannabis in a desert region close to the frontier with Morocco. The cannabis was confiscated near Erg Ferradj, approximately 100 kilometers from Bechar. More than 38 tons was seized in 2008 compared to only 4 tons in 2007.

• March 16: An Algerian sheep farmer had his throat slit and three of his children were killed in a bomb attack near the border with Tunisia. Militants killed three hundred sheep prior to killing their owner in this attack in Houidjbet. The motive for the attack was uncertain.

• March 19: Algerian chief investment officer of Spa Dahli, Abdelouahab Rahim, 57, has proposed an urban renewal project for Algiers. In February 2009 Rahim floated a 91.3 million pounds bond issue to fund a portion of the project. It is worth a total of 2.5 billion pounds in investment over a number of years. It is the first public bond offering made by a private Algerian company.

• March 22: A prosecutor of the criminal court of Oran ordered the detention of a forty-year-old woman for belonging to an international network of terror which targeted important personages in Algeria. She contends that the female terrorist network is headed by the Israeli Mossad. The center of the network is located in Egypt and some Persian Gulf nations.

• March 22: The five opponents of President Bouteflika trail the incumbent in terms of financing for the April 9 election. The state provides fifteen million dinars (150,000 Euros) to each candidate for his campaign. However this sum is insufficient to cover the costs of public meetings, posters, and updating websites. In Algiers 5,000 associations and neighborhood committees have been entrusted with the task of convincing voters to go out and vote.

• March 24: Gas asphyxiation accounts for the death of one person per day in Algeria. As many as thirty persons per day die during the cold season and two hundred nineteen succumbed to gas asphyxia in 2008.

• March 25: 120 Algerian Harragas (illegal immigrants) are serving prison terms in Adana Province after being charged with illegal immigration and attempting to cross the border into Greece. The term of their detention in jail in northwest Turkey is five days.

• March 31: Burgan Bank has purchased a 60% stake in TMs Gulf Bank of Algeria it was announced on March 30.

• March 31: Gambia and host Algeria will meet in the final of the 8th CAF-17 soccer championship. The Baby Scorpions of Gambia shutout Malawi 4-0 in a semifinal played in Zeralda on March 29.