Teachers across Algeria go on strike to protest low salaries and poor conditions

Teachers across Algeria go on strike to protest low salaries and poor conditions
Algeria has long taken pride in its free education system and the opportunities it affords students and teachers. (Social media)
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Updated 12 February 2025
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Teachers across Algeria go on strike to protest low salaries and poor conditions

Teachers across Algeria go on strike to protest low salaries and poor conditions

ALGIERS: Teachers throughout Algeria went on strike on Wednesday to protest low salaries and deteriorating working conditions, following demonstrations staged by students last month in an unusual outpouring of protest.

Students stood outside shuttered classrooms and roamed aimlessly on Tuesday, when teachers started a two-day strike.

The action by teachers and students comes at a time when public criticism of the government is becoming rarer. Teachers say the strike is significant amid a gradual shrinking of rights, including for women, the press and opposition parties. The right to strike is “a right enshrined in the constitution,” said Hafidha Amiréche, a long-time trade unionist.

Algeria has long taken pride in its free education system and the opportunities it affords students and teachers. Yet despite investing more on education than its neighbors — the country only spends more on its military — the school system has become a target of popular anger toward larger government problems including rising costs, corruption and a lack of jobs for skilled and educated workers like teachers. Teachers say they’re underpaid and educated young people are increasingly trying to emigrate out of the country in search of opportunities, with European visa applications steadily rising.

To address economic malaise, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has raised wages throughout his time in office, including for public sector workers like teachers who saw their salaries go up by 37 percent during his first term.

But teachers’ unions say starting salaries were barely more than the minimum wage or unemployment stipends, and are hoping for more increases.

Last month disillusioned students went on strike, organizing protests both at their schools and on social networks like TikTok to express anger about costly supplemental courses and old-fashioned curriculums they argue aren’t equipping them to maintain stable, well-paying jobs.


Three Israeli hostages, over 300 Palestinian prisoners set to be exchanged today

Three Israeli hostages, over 300 Palestinian prisoners set to be exchanged today
Updated 15 February 2025
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Three Israeli hostages, over 300 Palestinian prisoners set to be exchanged today

Three Israeli hostages, over 300 Palestinian prisoners set to be exchanged today
  • As with previous exchanges, a stage was set up and the area was festooned with Palestinian flags and the banners of Palestinian groups
  • The truce that began nearly four weeks ago had been jeopardized in recent days by a tense dispute that threatened to renew the fighting

KHAN YOUNIS: Hamas fighters have gathered in the southern Gaza Strip for the release of three Israeli hostages on Saturday in exchange for more than 300 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
The three are Iair Horn, 46, Sagui Dekel Chen, 36, and Alexander (Sasha) Troufanov, 29. All have dual citizenships. Horn was abducted along with his brother, Eitan, who remains in captivity.
As with previous exchanges, a stage was set up and the area was festooned with Palestinian flags and the banners of militant factions. Nearby was the shell of a heavily damaged multistory building.
The militants are expected to parade the hostages before crowds and cameras before handing them over to the Red Cross.
The truce that began nearly four weeks ago had been jeopardized in recent days by a tense dispute that threatened to renew the fighting.
US President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal to remove more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza and settle them elsewhere in the region has cast even more doubt on the future of the ceasefire.
But Hamas said Thursday it would move ahead with the release of more hostages after talks with Egyptian and Qatari officials. The group said the mediators had pledged to “remove all hurdles” to assure Israel would allow more tents, medical supplies and other essentials into Gaza.
It will be the sixth swap since the ceasefire took effect on Jan. 19. So far, 21 hostages and over 730 Palestinian prisoners have been freed during the first phase of the truce.
As with previous exchanges, dozens of masked, armed Hamas fighters lined up near a stage festooned with Palestinian flags and the banners of militant factions while music blared from loudspeakers.
The militants are expected to parade the hostages before crowds and cameras onto the stage, which has been set up near a heavily damaged multistory building, before handing them over to the Red Cross. The humanitarian organization will then transport them to Israeli force.


Sudan’s RSF attacks famine-stricken camp as battle lines harden

Sudan’s RSF attacks famine-stricken camp as battle lines harden
Updated 15 February 2025
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Sudan’s RSF attacks famine-stricken camp as battle lines harden

Sudan’s RSF attacks famine-stricken camp as battle lines harden
  • RSF trying to consolidate control in Darfur
  • Hunger monitor has confirmed famine in three camps

CAIRO/DUBAI: Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces have attacked the famine-stricken Zamzam displacement camp, residents and medics say, as the paramilitary tries to tighten its grip on its Darfur stronghold while losing ground to the army in the capital, Khartoum.
The latest fighting has hardened battle lines between the two forces in a conflict that threatens to splinter Sudan after plunging half the population into hunger and displacing more than one-fifth since April 2023.
This week, as it attempts to consolidate its territory, the RSF has staged multiple attacks on Zamzam residents, according to three people at the camp.
Medical aid agency MSF has confirmed seven deaths from the violence, while residents say dozens may have been killed. Medics are unable to perform surgery inside Zamzam, and travel to Al-Fashir’s Saudi hospital, a frequent RSF target, has become impossible, MSF said.
Reuters verified a video showing RSF forces inside Zamzam earlier this week, stamping on a rival flag as a building burned in the background.
Zamzam is located near Al-Fashir, capital of North Darfur and the army’s last remaining foothold in the wider Darfur region.
The RSF, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, says Zamzam is a base for the Joint Forces, former rebel groups now fighting alongside the army.
The Joint Forces said in a statement on Thursday that they were not present in the camp. The Sudanese government said the army, Joint Forces, and other volunteers were able to push the RSF back from Zamzam on Wednesday.
ARSON ATTACKS
Nearly 22 months after war erupted from a power struggle between the two factions, the RSF controls almost all of Darfur in Sudan’s west, and much of the neighboring Kordofan region. The army controls Sudan’s north and east and has recently made major gains in Khartoum.
Next week, a “political charter” setting up a parallel government in RSF-controlled territories will be signed, with the announcement of a cabinet coming soon after, Ibrahim Al-Mirghani, a politician who supports the effort, told Reuters.
The RSF has targetted Zamzam with artillery for months, causing some people to dig holes for shelter, according to one resident and a video shared by activists.
“Inside the neighborhoods, they terrorize, steal, and kill ... people hide in these holes when they are firing and when they are raiding, because there is nowhere else to flee,” the resident told Reuters.
The RSF has also continued raids and arson attacks on villages surrounding Al-Fashir in recent weeks, according to the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab.
The Yale Lab found that over half the structures in Zamzam’s main market were destroyed in a manner consistent with arson attacks, executive director Nathaniel Raymond told Reuters.
A video shared by army-aligned Darfur governor Minni Minnawi showed stalls burned to ash and vegetables strewn on the ground.
Arson was also detected on residences along the northern entrance to the camp, said Raymond.
Tens of thousands have been displaced, many seeking refuge in Zamzam and increasing the camp’s population to up to one million people, according to the International Organization for Migration.
ESCAPE ROUTES ‘BLOCKED’
Sudan’s top UN official Clementine Nkweta-Salami said on Thursday she was “shocked by the attacks on Zamzam IDP camp and the blockages of escape routes.”
Across Darfur RSF forces have restricted aid efforts, now also hit by freezes on USAID, according to UN and other aid workers.
MSF, one of few humanitarian groups operating in the area, had to stop a nutrition program for 6,000 malnourished children after the attacks, the aid group’s North Darfur coordinator Marion Ramstein said.
A global hunger monitor determined in August that Zamzam was experiencing famine. In December, it confirmed famine in two other camps in Al-Fashir.
Earlier this month, MSF said it found that the proportion of the camp’s children who were malnourished had risen to 34 percent, a similar level to Tawila, a nearby town to which many have fled from RSF attacks.


Turkiye replaces pro-Kurdish mayor in east with state official, ministry says

Turkiye replaces pro-Kurdish mayor in east with state official, ministry says
Updated 15 February 2025
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Turkiye replaces pro-Kurdish mayor in east with state official, ministry says

Turkiye replaces pro-Kurdish mayor in east with state official, ministry says

ANKARA: Turkiye on Saturday removed another elected pro-Kurdish provincial mayor over convictions on terrorism-related charges and appointed a state official in his place, the interior ministry said.
The local governor replaced Abdullah Zeydan, a member of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party and mayor of the eastern province of Van because of his recent conviction for “assisting an armed terrorist organization,” the ministry said in a statement.
Eight DEM Party-member mayors and two main opposition CHP-member mayors across Turkiye have been removed from their posts over terrorism-related charges since March 2024 local elections. Another CHP-member mayor has been under arrest over tender-rigging charges.
DEM, which has 57 seats in the 600-seat parliament, said the trustee appointment to the Van municipality was “a blow to people’s will,” and it will not “bow to this unlawfulness.”
Opposition politicians have faced a series of legal probes, detentions and arrests in what critics say is a government effort to muzzle dissent and hurt their electoral prospects.
Turkiye’s government dismisses accusations of political interference in the cases and says the judiciary is independent.
On Friday, a legal probe into a top official at Turkiye’s main business group TUSIAD was launched over his criticisms on the recent judicial crackdown on opposition leaders, mayors and journalists.
The European Parliament on Thursday condemned the legal actions against opposition mayors as a “disregard of the rule of law and the government’s violation of the fundamental principles of democracy.”
Saturday’s move also comes amid talks, supported by the government, with the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan, to seek an end to a 40-year conflict between the PKK and Turkish state.


Israel receives 3 hostages after Hamas released them to Red Cross

Israel receives 3 hostages after Hamas released them to Red Cross
Updated 58 min 8 sec ago
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Israel receives 3 hostages after Hamas released them to Red Cross

Israel receives 3 hostages after Hamas released them to Red Cross
  • The truce that began nearly four weeks ago had been jeopardized in recent days by a tense dispute that threatened to renew the fighting

KHAN YOUNIS: Hamas militants released three male Israeli hostages Saturday and Israeli forces began releasing hundreds of prisoners in return, in the latest indication that a fragile ceasefire that has paused fighting in the Gaza Strip but had teetered in recent days is holding.
Militants in the southern Gaza Strip paraded the three hostages — Iair Horn, 46, a dual citizen of Israel and Argentina; American-Israeli Sagui Dekel Chen, 36; and Russian-Israeli Alexander (Sasha) Troufanov, 29 — before a crowd before releasing them.
All had been abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, a community that was hard-hit in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war. They appeared pale and worn, but seemed in better physical condition than the three men released last Saturday, who had emerged emaciated from 16 months of captivity. 

Israeli hostages Iair Horn, 46, left, Sagui Dekel Chen, 36, center left, and Alexander Troufanov, 29, right, are escorted by Hamas and islamic Jihad fighters on a stage before being handed over to the Red Cross in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP)

As with previous exchanges, a stage was set up and the area was festooned with Palestinian flags and the banners of militant factions. Nearby was the shell of a heavily damaged multistory building.
The Hamas militants then handed them over to the Red Cross.
The truce that began nearly four weeks ago had been jeopardized in recent days by a tense dispute that threatened to renew the fighting.

Nearly all the 73 remaining hostages are men, including Israeli soldiers, and about half are believed to be dead.
The two sides have carried out five swaps since the ceasefire began on Jan. 19, freeing 21 hostages and over 730 Palestinian prisoners so far during the first phase of the truce. The war could resume if no agreement is reached on the more complicated second phase, which calls for the return of all remaining hostages captured in Hamas' attack on Oct. 7, 2023, and an indefinite extension of the truce.
US President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal to remove more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza and settle them elsewhere in the region has cast even more doubt on the future of the ceasefire.
But Hamas said Thursday it would move ahead with the release of more hostages after talks with Egyptian and Qatari officials. The group said the mediators had pledged to “remove all hurdles” to assure Israel would allow more tents, medical supplies and other essentials into Gaza.


UN peacekeeping mission deputy commander injured after convoy attacked in Beirut

UN peacekeeping mission deputy commander injured after convoy attacked in Beirut
Updated 15 February 2025
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UN peacekeeping mission deputy commander injured after convoy attacked in Beirut

UN peacekeeping mission deputy commander injured after convoy attacked in Beirut
  • The outgoing deputy force commander of the UNIFIL was injured on Friday when a convoy taking peacekeepers to Beirut airport was “violently attacked,” UNIFIL said

BEIRUT: The outgoing deputy force commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon was injured on Friday after a convoy taking peacekeepers to Beirut airport was "violently attacked", UNIFIL said.
The mission demanded a full and immediate investigation by Lebanese authorities and for all perpetrators to be brought to justice, it said in a statement.
Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun condemned the attack on Saturday, saying that security forces would not tolerate anyone who tries to destabilise the country, according to a statement from his office.
Interior Minister Ahmad al-Hajjar called for an emergency meeting before noon on Saturday to discuss the security situation, Lebanese state news agency NNA reported.
"He affirmed the Lebanese government's rejection of this assault that is considered a crime against UNIFIL forces," NNA reported, citing the minister.
He also gave instructions to work on identifying the perpetrators and referring them to the relevant judicial authorities.
The minister told reporters on Saturday that more than 25 people had been detained for investigation over the attack.
The United States condemned the attack that it said wounded U.N. peacekeepers. The State Department statement said the attack was carried out "reportedly by a group of Hezbollah supporters", referring to the Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon.