The Algerian press on Saturday greeted with skepticism a government building program to house the tens of thousands of people left homeless by a deadly earthquake.
"It will require a miracle for the state to meet its deadline of next winter to erase the traces of the quake and offer a roof to all the families left homeless," said the daily El Watan.
The report followed Friday's pledge by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika that "no one will spend winter under canvas" as the government announced a two-billion-euro (US$2.4 billion) building program to house the at least 80,000 people left without shelter by the quake.
"Here are the beautiful promises," said the Expression daily. "The reality, however, is more bitter."
"The only way for the government to meet the winter deadline is to `seize' buildings already completed or in the process of being completed, which are anxiously being awaited by their owners," said the Ech Chourouk newspaper.
The May 21 quake was the worst one to hit the north African country in 23 years, killing more than 2,260 people and injuring more than 10,000.
The quake and the tremors that followed destroyed completely or in part some 49 districts in the capital of Algiers and the nearby town of Boumerdes, according to the government.
Local press reports say between 100,000 and 120,000 people have been left homeless by the quake, sleeping in the open air, in tents or in cars.
In a statement Friday, the government called for the construction of some 20,000 new apartments, to be built using emergency aid to local authorities.
Construction of new housing will take up to two years, but some 3,500 homes were already available under existing social housing schemes and would be allocated to some of the homeless, the statement said.
The quake has released an avalanche of rage in Algeria -- at the government for its slow response to the emergency, and at corrupt property developers, dubbed "merchants of death", after hundreds of buildings simply collapsed in just a few short seconds.
Hundreds are assumed to have perished as emergency services turned up late or not at all, trapped in buildings that had clearly not been quake-proof, in violation of regulations on the books since 1980, when Algeria's worst quake struck killing some 3,000.
At present, the authorities are struggling desperately to find more canvas, with some of the 6,000 emergency tents set up so far now sheltering as many as 80 people each.
Bouteflika visited some of the emergency camps on Friday and said he had ordered a full review of Algeria's policies and equipment for responding to natural disasters.
Meanwhile, France said it will provide a reconstruction loan of US$35 to 59 million) to Algeria on specially favourable terms, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said on Saturday.
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
Former Lima mayor Rafael Lopez Aliaga, a Peruvian presidential hopeful, gathered hundreds of supporters in Lima on Tuesday and gave authorities 24 hours to annul the first round of the country’s election over allegations of fraud. Lopez Aliaga is locked in a tight three-way race with two other candidates for second place in Sunday’s vote. The election runner-up wins a ticket to June’s presidential run-off against front-runner Keiko Fujimori. “I am giving them 24 hours to declare this electoral fraud null and void,” said Lopez Aliaga, surrounded by a crowd of several hundred supporters. “If it is not declared null and void tomorrow,
PAPAL RETORT: Pope Leo told reporters that he has ‘no fear, neither of the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel’ US President Donald Trump has feuded with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran conflict — setting off an unholy row that could have serious political implications for the Republican leader back in the US. Trump has drawn barbs even from some allies over the attacks on the US-born pontiff, who has criticized the Trump administration over its immigration crackdown, the intervention in Venezuela and the Iran war. The president risks alienating the religious right in November’s crucial US midterm elections. So far the unprecedented clash between the leader of the most powerful military on Earth and the head of the world’s 1.4 billion
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in Florida in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship, the US Department of Justice said on Monday. Timothy Hudson was initially charged in February and subsequently indicted on March 10, but the breadth of the case was not known until a seal was lifted on Friday last week, weeks after US District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami said that he would be prosecuted as an adult at the request of the government. Anna Kepner had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November last
RSS