Algeria (Fact-Checking Service in Arabic)
Did there really take place recent clashes between the Algerian police and civil protection personnel?
A video clip has been circulating on social media, allegedly showing police officers attacking firefighters and rescue workers during a protest march in… Algeria Recently, but the video is from old protests in 2021 that were dispersed by the police.
The video shows hundreds of firefighters in the street clashing with what appear to be police officers, and French commentary can be heard on what is happening.
The publishers said that these were recent scenes of “the Algerian police attacking civil protection,” while some pages went on to say that “the Algerian police killed members of civil protection during their protest against the dire conditions in the country.”
The video has garnered thousands of views and shares from several Facebook pages and the X platform, while Algeria is receiving criticism over freedom of expression and human rights.
In February 2024, five years after the start of the pro-democracy movement, Amnesty International said that Algeria continues to restrict the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
In early September, Amnesty International accused the Algerian authorities of “suffocating civil society through a horrific crackdown on human rights” and “new arbitrary arrests and a refusal to tolerate any dissenting voices.”
On September 8, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune was declared the winner of a second term in the presidential elections, after obtaining 84.30% of the votes. The elections, like the previous ones, were characterized by low participation.
Old video
but Video There are no recent clashes between Algerian police and civil protection personnel.
What raises doubts about it being recent is that the people appearing in it are wearing medical masks, which suggests that it was filmed during the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In light of this, searching for the video using keywords on Facebook such as “Algerian Civil Protection Police” leads to several clips showing protests by Civil Protection personnel, most of which were published in May 2021.
By narrowing the results to this period using the Who Posted What tool, the same video can be found published on May 2, 2021 on a Facebook page, and the logo of an Algerian French-speaking media outlet appeared on it.
A search on the Interlignes page allows you to find the video circulating in a 25-minute live broadcast starting at minute 17:50.
The details stated that the video shows civil defense personnel heading to the presidential building.
At that time, members of the Civil Protection demonstrated in their professional uniforms, starting from a location not far from the headquarters of the Presidency of the Republic, all the way to their general administration building.
The demonstrators called for their professional and material demands to be met and for a colleague who was arrested earlier for reasons that were not announced.
The police forcibly dispersed the demonstration, according to testimonies posted by participants on social media.
