ALGIERS: A third person has died in Algeria as a result of riots sparked by the rising cost of living and unemployment, Interior Minister Dahou Ould Kablia said Saturday. “I confirm the death of three young people at M'sila, Tipaza and Boumerdes,” he said referring to three towns where unrest had broken out. The third body was found in a hotel burned down by rioters, the minister added. He did not say where the hotel was located. Earlier in the day, two people were reported killed and 400 injured, 300 of them police, in riots linked to rising food costs and unemployment, Kablia said as the government scrambled to defuse the crisis. One was shot dead Friday in Ain Lahdjel in the M'Sila region, 300 km southeast of Algiers, the minister said on national radio. “He died in an attempt to break into a police station,” he added, confirming a report in the Arab-language daily El-Khabar, which named the victim as 18-year-old, Azzedine Lebza. A second demonstrator was killed Friday in Bou Smail, a small town 50 km west of Algiers, he said. “He was picked up in the street, wounded. A pathologist said he had died from wounds to the head, but the cause of death has not yet been established.” A medical official said earlier that the man, 32-year-old Akriche Abdelfattah, had been hit in the face by a tear gas canister. As the death toll rises, Algeria's government said it would slash the cost of some staple foods Saturday to try to quell the four days of rioting. Government ministers met in the capital to discuss how to respond to the wave of unrest. As they did so, fresh protests broke out in two cities in the volatile Kabylie region east of Algiers, witnesses said. In its first detailed response to the worst rioting in energy exporter Algeria in years, the government said it would cut import duties and tax on sugar and cooking oil, focus of much of the anger over price rises. The government also offered reassurances that the state – which uses revenues from oil and gas exports to subsidize many staple goods – would not leave people at the mercy of rising food prices. “Nothing can cast doubt on the resolute will of the state, under the direction of the president of the republic, to intervene whenever necessary to preserve the purchasing power of citizens in the Kablia said police had been ordered to show restraint in containing the demonstrations and had been paid for it. “More than 300 police and gendarmes have been wounded, while on the other side there are fewer than 100 hurt,” he said. According to El-Khabar's account of the first death, police opened fire as they tried to evict demonstrators who had forced their way into the town's post office and a government building. It said three of Lebza's friends were also wounded. Youths clashed with police in Algiers and several other towns across the country Friday despite appeals for calm from imams on the third day of unrest. In Annaba, 600 km west of Algiers, 17 people were injured, including three policemen, when demonstrators threw stones, according to emergency services and a policeman who asked not to be named. — Agencies The rioting, which broke out after Friday prayers in a poor neighbourhood of the city, continued late into the night. A local government office was ransacked, according to witnesses. Protestors also cut down electricity poles during the night, cutting off power to the working class suburb of Auzas. Amar circus equipment in Annaba was damaged by rioters but circus staff was safe after fleeing the scene, witnesses said. In Tizi Ouzou, the capital of the eastern Kabylie region, residents said rioting had spread from the city centre to the outskirts, and demonstrators burning tyres blocked the main road to Algiers. Similar protests took place in the Algiers district of Belcourt but the capital was calmer Saturday. The General Union of Algerian Workers and Trade Minister Mustapha Benbada have accused producers and wholesalers of inflating prices ahead of new measures requiring them to systematically bill for their goods.
