Africa

Algeria is a country located in the North East of Africa.  According to database at Theodora it is a country with an estimated population of 38,087,812 in 2013.  The population is 99% Arab-Berber and less than 1% European, 99% are Sunni Muslim and 1% are Christian or Jewish.  Arabic is the official language, though French and multiple Berber dialects are also spoken.  Their official GDP was $206.5 Billion in 2012, with their economy based mainly on industrial 61%, service29.6% and agriculture 9.5%.  23% of their population lives below the poverty line and they had an unemployment rate of 10.7% in 2012.  according to the database at Photius.

 

Throughout history Algeria has been ruled by many different groups creating an interesting basis for the current situation in the country.  Algeria has been ruled by the Berbers, Romans, Byzantines, Ottomans, and the French before they gained their independence in 1962.  The movie Battle of Algiers has been touted as a great portrayal of the French Algerian War.

According to Vision of Humanity Algeria was ranked 15th out of 159 countries on their Global Terrorism Index in 2011.  They had a GTI score of 5.83, they had 15 terrorist incidents, with a total of 25 deaths and 34 injuries in 2011.

In Vision of Humanity’s Global Peace Index Algeria was ranked 119th out of 162 countries in 2013. In 2011 it was ranked 129th out of 153, showing that Algeria is making progress for the better.

The British Government states that there is still a high risk of a terrorist attack in Algeria.  They state that the main group to be concerned about is the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.  The attacks focus mainly on Algerian government officials, but sometimes include random heavily populated public areas.  They also are known for kidnapping westerners, Algerian officials and civilians for ransom.

The Council on Foreign Relations describes Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb as “a Salafi-jihadist militant group … operating in the Sahara and Sahel. The group traces its provenance to Algeria’s civil war in the 1990s, and has in the past decade become an al-Qaeda affiliate with regional ambitions. Though AQIM and its offshoots pose the primary transnational terror threat in North and West Africa, they are unlikely to strike U.S. or Western interests beyond the region”(Luab, n.p.).

The AQIM has claimed responsibility for multiple bombing attacks against worker convoys, the attack against the United Nations building in Algiers in 2007, and the attack on the Israeli embassy in Nouakchott, Mauritania in 2008 (The NationalCounterterrorism Center, n.p.).

The most notable terrorist attack in recent history was on January 16th 2013 at an oil plant in In Amenas.  This attack was carried out by “Mokhtar Belmokhtar and his jihadist group Those who sign in blood, 

a splinter group from al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the organization’s

North Africa wing” (Nield, n.p.).  According to the Guardian 38 civilians and 29 militants died during the attack, hostage stand off and siege.  Nield states that “The In Amenas attack was the only one on an Algerian oil and gas plant in the country’s history and arguably the most devastating act of terrorism against the state since it gained independence from France in

1962″.