ALGIERS: Algerian authorities have arrested a well-known veteran of the war of independence against France, his grandson and media outlets said Sunday, after he reportedly criticised military chief Ahmed Gaid Saleh.
Lakhdar Bouregaa, 86, was arrested at his home in the upscale Hydra neighbourhood overlooking Algiers on Saturday and taken to a intelligence services base, grandson Imad Bouregaa said.
He told the DzVid news website that his grandfather's arrest was linked to comments he made about Gaid Salah, Algeria's strongman since the ouster in April of veteran president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
"My grandfather said that Gaid Salah wanted to impose his own candidate in presidential elections" to replace Bouteflika, he said.
National television reported that he had been detained for "insulting a state body and undermining the morale of the army", charges for which he could face up to 10 years in prison.
Bouteflika resigned after weeks of protests against his rule, only hours after close ally Gaid Salah demanded impeachment proceedings against him.
Gaid Salah has since been pushing for polls to choose a successor but a planned election on July 4 was scrapped after the only two candidates were rejected.
Bouregaa's arrest was also reported by several media outlets in Algeria, including French-language daily Liberte, and sparked criticism on social media.
His arrest has "shocked" many of those who took part in the 1954-1962 war of independence against French colonial rule, human rights activist Fodil Boumala said in a statement posted on Facebook.
It was a "serious blunder", said the statement signed by dozens of university professors.
Bouregaa, who was a commander of the National Liberation Army (ALN) which fought the French and a founder in 1963 of the Front for Socialist Forces (FFS), one of Algeria's oldest opposition parties.
The FFS said it was "angry" and "dismayed" at his arrest.
Liberte said Bouregaa had contacted his children to inform them of his arrest but could not say where he was being held or the reason for his detention.
Algeria arrests prominent war veteran
Algeria arrests prominent war veteran
- The arrest of Lakhdar Bouregaa, who is in his 80s, has ‘shocked’ many of those who took part in the 1954-1962 war of independence against French colonial rule
Landmine explosion in Sudan kills 9, including 3 children
- “Nine people, three of them children, were killed by a mine explosion while they were in a tuk-tuk,” a medical source at Al-Abbasiya hospital said
KHARTOUM: A land mine explosion killed nine people in Sudan on Sunday, including three children, as they were riding in an auto-rickshaw along a road in the frontline region of Kordofan, a medical source told AFP.
The war between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which began in April 2023, has left Sudan strewn with mines and unexploded ordnance, though the explosive that caused Sunday’s deaths could also have dated back to previous rebellions that have shaken South Kordofan state since 2011.
“Nine people, three of them children, were killed by a mine explosion while they were in a tuk-tuk,” a medical source at Al-Abbasiya hospital said.
The vehicle was reduced to “a metal carcass,” witness Abdelbagi Issa told AFP by phone.
“We were walking behind the tuk-tuk along the road to the market when we heard the sound of an explosion,” he said. “People fell to the ground and the tuk-tuk was destroyed.”
Kordofan has become the center of fighting in the nearly three-year war ever since the RSF forced the army out of its last foothold in the neighboring Darfur region late last year.
Since it broke out, Sudan’s civil war has killed tens of thousands of people and forced 11 million to flee their homes, triggering a dire humanitarian crisis.
It has also effectively split the country in two, with the army holding the north, center and east while the RSF and its allies control the west and parts of the south.
