Algeria

Main article: Africa

Population

Main article: Population of Africa

Population

2024: 46.7 million

As of January 1, 2024 - 46.7 million, the forecast value as of January 1, 2025 - 47.4 million inhabitants.

2023: 46.33 million

Algeria had an estimated population of 46,344,000 as of July 1, 2023, according to the Algerian National Bureau of Statistics. Natural annual growth - 703 thousand people or 1.52%

2022:46 million people

Birth rate

2023: Birth rate falls below 900,000 newborns for first time in 13 years

Birth rate: in 2023, for the first time since 2010, it fell below the figure of 900 thousand newborns (the figure was 895 thousand), in general, a decrease in the birth rate since 2017 is characteristic.

Migration

2021: Net outflow over 4 years

People

Tuaregs

• Tuaregs

Age

2023: Men outnumber women, population ages

Structure: As of 2023, Algeria has a male-dominated population - 50.6% of the total (103 men per 100 women).

The proportion of the population from 0 to 15 years old - 30.3%

The share of the working age population (from 15 to 59 years old) continues to decline: from 60.0% to 59.2% in the period from 2019 to 2023.

People aged 60 and over now make up 10.5% of the total population (about 5 million people) compared to 9.5% in 2019.

Marriages

Allowed to have more than one spouse

Overweight

Life expectancy

2023: Men 78.2, women 81

The average life expectancy in men is 78.2 years, in women - 81 years (for the first time during observation, the mark of 80 years was exceeded in women).

2022: Life expectancy - 77.1 years

Mortality

2023: Mortality rate of 4.15 people per 1 thousand inhabitants

Mortality rate: in 2022 and 2023 amounted to 4.15 people per 1,000 inhabitants.

2018: Traffic safety

2016

Economy

Main article: Economy of Algeria

Crime

Prisons

2022: The minimum age for children to be jailed is 13

2018: Number of prisoners per 100 thousand citizens

Terrorism

Education

Percentage of people who can read

Health care

Maternity leave

in

2020: Duration of guaranteed paid sick leave 6 months or more

Religion

2020: The country in the world leaders in the share of Muslims in the total population

Sport

2022: The most popular sport is football

in

History

2024: Recall of ambassador from France as country backs Moroccan sovereign over Western Sahara and sponsors terrorists in Algeria

In July 2024, the Algerian authorities recalled their ambassador from France, due to the recognition by the French authorities of Morocco's sovereignty over Western Sahara.

In December 2025, the question arose of a complete severance of ties due to the alleged sponsorship by the French of terrorist groups.

Former Islamic State militant Mohamed Amin Aissaoui told Algerian counterintelligence that French intelligence was trying to recruit him.

He was tasked, with the help of other agents from French diplomatic services, with gathering information about Islamists in the Algerian capital and Oran, as well as smuggling networks involved in illegal migration, he said.

This is not the only case of support for anti-government forces from France. So, in 2023, the French special services helped the separatist Amira Buraoui get out of Algeria. In addition, there were other cases related to the sponsorship of Islamist parties in Algeria.

Aissaoui decided to cooperate with Algerian counterintelligence, informing them of an attempt to recruit him. This incident served as a reason to call the French Ambassador to Algeria Stefan Romate for a conversation. Of course, the latter denied all accusations of French support for terrorists.

At the same time, the Algerian authorities in their anti-French agenda do not stop relations with the West. On the contrary, recently they have been building bridges with other Western powers, mainly with the United States.

2023

Application for joining the shareholders of the New Development Bank with a share of $1.5 billion

Algeria in July 2023 applied to join the shareholders of the New Development Bank (NDB), created by the member countries of the BRICS interstate association. According to Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the country's estimated share will be $1.5 billion. Tebboune reiterated that an official application for Algeria to join the BRICS has been submitted.

Refusal to condemn Russia in the conflict in Ukraine

2022

Algeria aims to join BRICS

On July 31, 2022, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced that the republic was interested in joining the BRICS.

"Algeria has almost all the conditions to join the BRICS and is strongly interested in joining this alliance."

Algeria cuts ties with Spain over its support for Morocco over disputed territories

The Algerian Banking Association (Abef), an intermediary body between banks the Algerian government, announced on June 8, 2022 that from June 09, 2022 it would block all payments on foreign trade transactions for goods Spain in and out. Spain This is a measure affecting all sectors of the economy. At the end of July, this decision of Algeria was canceled.

Algeria announced the interruption of relations between political, economic and investment cooperation, including in the field of power, which is enshrined in the Treaty of Friendship.

Algeria's ambassador to Spain is not in Madrid, but in Algeria, after being recalled for consultations in March, a day after the announcement of an agreement between Spain and Morocco.

Western Sahara belonged to the Spaniards until 1975. After their withdrawal, the territory was divided between Morocco (in the north) and Mauritania (in the east and south). By 1979, the latter also renounced its claims. But there was another player - the Polisario Front (this is short for Popular por la Liberación de Saguía el Hamra y Río de Oro).

Already in 1976, Front partisans with the support of Algeria (its relations with Morocco have deteriorated since the Sandstone War of 1963, and in August-2021 the countries broke off relations) proclaimed Western Sahara an independent state - the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). It was recognized by 84 states - but Russia is not among them.

So the UN could not decide who to support: Morocco, claiming the entire territory, or SADR, which de facto occupies a narrow strip along the border with Mauritania. The UN is demanding a referendum - but it has never been held in the three decades since the ceasefire agreement.

The situation escalated at the end of 2020, when the president USA Trump recognized the sovereignty of the Moroccans over the disputed territory (within the framework of the Abraham Agreements - that is, the Israeli factor also played a role).

To restore damaged relations with Morocco, Madrid, too, changed its position on Western Sahara, which has already caused discontent among Algeria. As a result, the latter suspended the agreement on friendship, good neighborliness and cooperation with Spain from 2002, and as a result - trade relations.

According to UN Comtrade, the trade turnover of Algeria and Spain in 2021 amounted to $7.96 billion, of which $5.64 billion fell on Spanish exports.

As for gas supplies to Spain, the freezing of trade relations has not yet affected the implementation of the contract. However, such a development of events is not excluded - especially since in November Algeria had already closed the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline, which went through Morocco, leaving only a "straight" Medgaz pipe in operation.

But if it closes, then, in fact, Madrid will lose an important share (about 8 billion cubic meters. m) imported gas.

2019

Contract for the purchase from Russia of 14 fifth-generation Su-57E fighters and 14 front-line Su-34 bombers

In December 2019, it became known that Algeria signed a contract for the purchase of 14 Russian fifth-generation multifunctional fighters Su-57E and 14 front-line Su-34 bombers. This is reported by the Menadefense portal.

The contract, which is valued at six billion dollars, is scheduled to run through 2025. The portal notes that Algeria has been negotiating the acquisition of aircraft for a long time. The decision was made after the Algerian delegation visited the MAKS air show in Moscow in the summer of 2019. It is reported that information about the purchase of the Su-57 was also confirmed by international media sources. According to experts, in this way Algeria became the first foreign customer for the Su-57 and Su-34.

The court sentenced the brother of ex-President Bouteflika and the head of the special services to 15 years in prison

In September 2019, Said Bouteflika, brother of the ousted Algerian president, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after a two-day trial.

Two former intelligence chiefs and a political party leader were also sentenced to 15 years in prison by a military court in Blida, a city south of Algeria's capital.

1966:17 French nuclear bomb tests in 6 years. More than 2 million people died from cesium and uranium pollution

From 1960 to 1966, the French conducted a total of 17 tests in Algeria at two training grounds.

The training ground near Reggan was named the "Sahara Center for Military Experiments" (CSEM). Four explosions were carried out there:

• February 13, 1960 - "Blue jerboa" (capacity 70 kt);
• April 1, 1960 - "White jerboa" (power less than 5 kt);
• December 27, 1960 - "Red jerboa" (power less than 5 kt);
• April 25, 1961 - "Green jerboa" (power less than 5 kt).

Another training ground called the Center for Military Experiments in Oases (CEMO) was located in In Eker, in the province of Tamanrasset in the south of the country. 13 tests were carried out here:

• November 7, 1961 - "Agat" (power less than 20 kt);

On April 25, 1962, CSEM conducted another test - specifically to study the human impact of nuclear weapons. Conscripts were sent to the training ground as experimental rabbits. The infantrymen were ordered 45 minutes after the explosion to approach a distance of several hundred meters to its epicenter and be there for about an hour. They only had a desert-standard field uniform. Researchers Hiati, Bejaoui, Mansouri in their works mentioned the facts of the use of 150 Algerian prisoners in experiments. They were tied to poles near the landfill in order to study human behavior during an atomic explosion.

"The authorities knew that they were putting them in danger when they sent them for these tests, and had to take measures to protect their health," said Patrice Bouvere, an employee of the Arms Observatory. However, the National Assembly report said that "exposure of the local population associated with aerial testing was even lower than the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiation Protection."

• May 1, 1962 - "Beryl" (power less than 30 kt).

Despite their brutality, the ordeal continued even after Algeria gained independence in 1962. This was possible thanks to the Evian Agreements, under which France received military and test bases in the Sahara for rent for five years.

In addition, according to the American magazine New Lines, in the 1960s, the French fleet still controlled the Mers el Kebir naval base in Oran (western Algeria). In exchange for withdrawing its contingent from Mers el Kebir, France extended the duration of its desert experiments. Such facts reinforce the guilt of both the French and Algerian authorities in the harmful consequences of the tests and explain their unwillingness to make the problem public.

• March 18, 1963 - "Emerald" (power less than 20 kt);
• March 30, 1963 - "Amethyst" (power less than 5 kt);
• October 20, 1963 - "Rubin" (capacity less than 100 kt);
• February 14, 1964 - "Opal" (power less than 5 kt);
• June 15, 1964 - Topaz (power less than 5 kt);
• November 28, 1964 - "Turquoise" (power less than 20 kt);
• February 27, 1965 - Sapphire (power less than 150 kt);
• May 30, 1965 - "Jade" (power less than 5 kt);
• October 1, 1965 - "Korund" (power less than 5 kt);
• December 1, 1965 - "Turmalin" (power less than 20 kt);
• February 16, 1966 - "Grenade" (power less than 20 kt).

Since July 1966, France moved its experiments to the Pacific Ocean zone - to French Polynesia. On the atolls of Mururoa and Fangatauf, which are part of the Tuamotu Islands, a total of 175 nuclear explosions thundered.

After the French military left the training grounds in 1966, they buried nuclear waste and equipment in the sand. The burial sites remained unknown. That is why toxic remains and debris still cause serious damage to ecology and health. Algeria requires information on nuclear test sites, as well as compensation payments to the families of victims and victims of radiation. However, France rejects the accusations and demands and refuses to take on "historical obligations."

"Under the Evian Accords, CSEM and CEMO sites were handed over to Algerian authorities in 1967, after all technical structures were dismantled, galleries cleaned and blocked," the report said.

According to historians, nuclear experiments in southern Algeria are among the worst crimes committed by France during the 132 years of occupation of the country. The tests led to the death of people, animals and plants and the infection of hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of the territory of the Algerian Sahara and other locations.Radioactive precipitation was not limited to the desert, they spread throughout Africa and the Mediterranean.

According to experts who studied the consequences of the tests, more than 42 thousand Algerians were affected by nuclear explosions. The French Ministry of Defense claims 27,000 victims, including French military and technical specialists, as well as residents of areas adjacent to the two training grounds. Abdul Kadhim al-Aboudi, professor of nuclear physics at the University of Orange in western Algeria and a member of the Commission for the Protection of Memory in Algeria, estimates the number of victims at 60 thousand people.

Le Journal de l'Afrique indicates that nuclear tests seriously exposed the population of not only Algeria, but also Mali: according to official statistics, more than 2 million people died from cesium and uranium pollution.

At the end of 1999, at the request of the Algerian government, the IAEA sent five specialists in conducting radiological assessments to facilities that France used in the early 1960s.

All the samples they took in Reggan were infected. Most of the pollution was contained in black, vitreous and porous material: the sand melted during the explosion, and then solidified. At underground test sites, the concentration of cesium and strontium in the lava was higher than in the vitrified sand at the atmospheric test site; plutonium concentration - slightly less; water contamination was minor.

The conclusion argued that "restoration of the environment at any of the test sites is not required." However, the report said that the samples taken were not enough to draw accurate conclusions about the effects of radiation in the areas of the tests.

According to a report by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research published in 2022, the testing regions are "highly contaminated locally," and the level of plutonium there is high - more than a million becquerels per kilogram of material taken.

According to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), adopted by the UN in 2017, the countries concerned are required to "assist victims of the use or testing of nuclear weapons or work to clean up the environment in contaminated areas." France refused to ratify this document.

1962: End of the War of Independence with France

The Algerian War of Independence lasted from 1 November 1954 to 19 March 1962.

November 1-Independence Day of Algeria (إندلاع الثورة التحريرية) is one of the most important holidays in Algeria. It was on this day, November 1, 1954, that the war for independence began between France and the TNF (National Liberation Front).

According to the data, about 150 thousand rebels and from 300 thousand to 1.5 million civilians died in this war.

On the night of April 21-22, 1961, the Putsch of Generals took place in the country. Maurice Shal, Edmond Jouot, Andre Zeller, Raoul Salan, having secured the support of the 1st Parachute Regiment, tried to capture the capital, but were defeated: as the French media wrote, "thanks to the energetic reaction of General de Gaulle."

Despite the actual military defeat of the Algerian rebels, for political and economic reasons, the conflict ended with the recognition of Algerian independence by France.

1960: French nuclear bomb test in Algerian part of Sahara

In 1959, the CIA published a scientific intelligence report on the French nuclear weapons program (CIA/SI 47-59), which referred to the planned first nuclear test in the Sahara desert near the city of Reggana in southwestern Algeria.

In the same year, the international movement "Protest in the Sahara" (1959-1960) was formed, the purpose of which was to "awaken the conscience of the French people and the peoples of other nuclear powers, stimulate further active opposition in Africa and stop the bomb tests - or at least embarrass the French government."

Opponents of nuclear tests held mass demonstrations Tunisia on January 25 and in Libyan Tripoli on January 31, 1960. Morocco About two thousand people protested near the embassy, France despite the ban on public demonstrations. Paris Five hundred African students sent a petition against nuclear testing to Prime Minister Michel Debra.

Despite the protests, the French detonated their first nuclear device on 13 February 1960. The operation was called the "Blue jerboa."

1914

1900

1890

1880: French Colony

As part of the Roman Empire

Main article: Roman Empire

129 BC: Numidia

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