Algeria’s protest movement considers how and when to come back

COVID-19 HAS killed around 700 people in Algeria, says the government, but the real toll is surely higher. The pandemic has also crippled the country’s economy. Last month President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced that the state budget would be cut in half because of plummeting oil revenue. The virus, though, has helped Mr Tebboune in at least one way. With the country locked down to prevent its spread, protesters have been forced off the streets. Hundreds of thousands of them had been marching for over a year, even after toppling the previous president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in April 2019. Their work was unfinished: many of the old economic, political and military elite remained in power. The nature of the system had not changed. Now the protesters must decide how and when to try to finish the job.