Violence hits southern Algeria for second day

Clashes in southern Algerian town of Ourgla continued Thursday for the second day in a row, with protesters burning a government building and the branch of the national reserve bank, Al-Arabiya news reported. The violence erupted Wednesday in protest against a list of beneficiaries of free apartments to be granted by the authorities to the poor and low-income families in Algeria. This comes after unemployed youths in Algeria s southern states, which are rich in oil and gas, took to the streets. At least 40 people including 22 riot police members were seriously injured in Wednesday s clashes. Rashid Chouikh, the editor in chief of al-Jadid newspaper in southern Algeria, told Al Arabiya that the protests in the city of Ouargla brought together neighborhoods in its surrounding areas. Two days before Ouargla s protests, violence broke out in the Constantine Province for the same reason. Algerian authorities are now worried about a wave of angry demonstrations. The chairman of the National Committee for the Unemployed Taher Belabbas said the cause behind the protests in the city of Ouargla is the false promises made by the government about housing the poor, employing the unemployed, and solving the problems around development in the Southern region in general. Mohamed Hadibi, spokesman of the Islamic Renaissance Movement told Al Arabiya that similar to what happens before every political event, authorities seek to offer social bribes to people, to license their political projects. The head of the New Generation Party who is against the extension of Abdelaziz Bouteflika fourth term echoed this statement when he told Al Arabiya that he was informed that the government gave orders to the States governors to start the apartment distribution, months before announcing a draft project which looks to amend the Constitution, and less than a year before the next presidential election. This is the last year of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika three years in office. The constitutional amendment is scheduled to take place by the end of this year and the presidential election is set for April 2014.