Algerien ist ein Staat im Nordwesten Afrikas. Das zum Maghreb zählende Land grenzt an das Mittelmeer, Marokko, Westsahara, Mauretanien, Mali, Niger, Libyen und Tunesien. Algerien war bis zum Unabhängigkeitskrieg französisches Gebiet und ist neben dem Sudan und der Demokratischen Republik Kongo einer der größten Staaten Afrikas mit einem großen Anteil an der Sahara. Nach Jahren des Bürgerkrieges zwischen islamischen Fundamentalisten und der Regierung ist Algerien nun relativ befriedet und darum bemüht, gesellschaftliche und wirtschaftliche Reformen zu verwirklichen.
Amtliche
Kurzform:
Algerien
Name in Landessprache: الجزائر
Kurzform:
Al Jaza'ir
Vollform:
Al-Jumhuriya al-Jaza'iriya ad-Dimuqratiya ash-Sha'biya Name in
Englisch: Algeria Ehemaliger Name:
CIA
Background-Info
After more than a century of rule by France, Algerians fought through much of the 1950s to achieve independence in 1962. Algeria's primary political party, the National Liberation Front (FLN), has dominated politics ever since. Many Algerians in the subsequent generation were not satisfied, however, and moved to counter the FLN's centrality in Algerian politics. The surprising first round success of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in the December 1991 balloting spurred the Algerian army to intervene and postpone the second round of elections to prevent what the secular elite feared would be an extremist-led government from assuming power. The army began a crackdown on the FIS that spurred FIS supporters to begin attacking government targets. The government later allowed elections featuring pro-government and moderate religious-based parties, but did not appease the activists who progressively widened their attacks. The fighting escalated into an insurgency, which saw intense fighting between 1992-98 and which resulted in over 100,000 deaths - many attributed to indiscriminate massacres of villagers by extremists. The government gained the upper hand by the late-1990s and FIS's armed wing, the Islamic Salvation Army, disbanded in January 2000. However, small numbers of armed militants persist in confronting government forces and conducting ambushes and occasional attacks on villages. The army placed Abdelaziz BOUTEFLIKA in the presidency in 1999 in a fraudulent election but claimed neutrality in his 2004 landslide reelection victory. Longstanding problems continue to face BOUTEFLIKA in his second term, including the ethnic minority Berbers' ongoing autonomy campaign, large-scale unemployment, a shortage of housing, unreliable electrical and water supplies, government inefficiencies and corruption, and the continuing - although significantly degraded - activities of extremist militants. Algeria must also diversify its petroleum-based economy, which has yielded a large cash reserve but which has not been used to redress Algeria's many social and infrastructure problems.
