BOUMERDES, Algeria, 27 May 2003 — The Algerian government scrambled yesterday to dispel criticism it has dragged its heels in helping victims of last week’s deadly quake, as Islamic groups took advantage of the widespread anger toward the authorities and stepped in to fill the void. Since the quake hit last Wednesday, the boulaya (bearded ones) have been seen at disaster sites, helping to distribute emergency aid, pitching in with rescue and recovery efforts, even digging graves.

Their ubiquitous presence has contrasted sharply with what survivors of the quake say is a bungled government response to the crisis, with ill-equipped rescue services arriving too late or not at all, and a widespread failure to provide emergency lodging. By yesterday the death toll had risen to 2,217 with hundreds still missing.

Foreign rescue teams left earthquake-torn Algeria yesterday but the nightmare went on for 15,000 homeless people facing the threat of disease and public fury mounted over the government’s handling of the calamity. State radio said there were fears disease could break out across ravaged towns of the North African country’s Mediterranean coast due to a lack of clean water and sanitation.

With hundreds still unaccounted for under the rubble of buildings that collapsed in Algiers and towns east of the capital, the body count looked set to climb still higher. Several days of frantic searching for survivors appeared to be over as elite teams from around the world and their packs of sniffer dogs headed for the airport. “There’s nothing more we can do. Anyone that’s under all that is dead, not alive,” said one, as he gathered his bags together in an Algiers hotel.

The head of an 11-strong French rescue team in Boumerdes, the town hardest hit by the quake, with more than 1,200 dead, said they had lost precious hours when they first arrived in Algeria on Saturday. “We stood around, stuck at the airport. There was a lot of panic, they didn’t know where to send us,” said Frederic Beucler. “The strength of international solidarity overwhelmed them,” he said, adding: “People are very angry.”

“The first hours are vital,” said Gerard Douamne, a French computer technician who has taken unpaid leave to come here. Scores of trucks could be seen yesterday headed to Boumerdes, loaded with tents, food and water, blankets and other supplies as aid operations gathered strength and became better organized.

“The state did nothing,” said Djazia Aloui, who was sheltered in a tent supplied by Sonatrac, the Algerian oil company, one of a sea of thousands of makeshift canvas shelters in Boumerdes, 50 kilometers east of Algiers. Initially, only private enterprise, foreign interests and local gendarmes had provided assistance, she said. “The government didn’t come until two days later. That’s too late, and that’s why we lost so many people,” Aloui said.

“The anger is justified when five days later people are still sleeping outdoors, and in some places aid still hasn’t arrived,” Madjid Abid of the opposition Socialist Forces Front (FFS) party told AFP. “The government has not learned from past disasters” such as the flooding that ravaged Algiers in late 2001 and recurrent earthquakes, he said.

The authorities, meanwhile, tried to dispel some of the criticism leveled against them, with Habitat Minister Mohamed Nadir Hamimid announcing the launch of an inquiry to determine why dozens of buildings had collapsed in the quake. Construction experts and victims of the quake have accused property developers and the authorities for allowing housing developments to be put up hastily, with little heed to Algeria’s construction code.

“The president of the republic (Abdelaziz Bouteflika) has decided to launch an inquiry to find out who was responsible. And responsibility will be determined, that much is certain, but we aren’t at that stage yet,” Hamimid said. But for many, the government moves have been too long in coming, and the boulaya have tapped into that anger and an undercurrent of discontent over enduring socio-economic problems in Algerian, where half the population lives in poverty and unemployment hovers at around 30 percent.

Meanwhile, people who managed to escape with some of their belongings before their apartment blocks crashed down around them were able to take their beloved pets to safety with them. Dotted around tent city in Boumerdes, vividly colored parakeets and canaries chirped in their cages, helping to brighten up an otherwise desolate landscape.